FINE GAEL:FINE GAEL has published plans to create 100,000 jobs over five years by helping business and eliminating bureaucracy and red tape.
The plan provides for tax freezes and reductions for many firms, heavy investment in water and communications infrastructure and measures designed to coax people off social welfare and back to work.
Jobs and economic planning spokesman Richard Bruton said the plan aimed to keep people working in Ireland, make it easier to start up a new business and help Irish businesses sell globally.
The party also revealed it would implement almost €2.60 in spending cuts for every €1 it raises in higher taxes to plug the country’s deficit.
Some 72 per cent of the savings the party plans to make would come from spending cuts, compared to 28 per cent from tax increases, according to Mr Bruton.
This approach marks a departure from the party’s previously stated aim of implementing three times as much in cuts as in extra taxes. It also moves Fine Gael closer to the position of its prospective coalition partner Labour, which is proposing 50 per cent cuts and 50 per cent taxes, or a ratio of 1:1.
Mr Bruton said the balance he was proposing, which comes out at a ratio of 2.57:1 between cuts and taxes, was vital because any imposition of higher taxes would cause a recovery plan to fail and kill jobs.
The Government is currently pursuing a ratio of 2:1.
Mr Bruton was speaking yesterday with party leader Enda Kenny and energy and natural resources spokesman Leo Varadkar at the launch of a document outlining Fine Gael’s jobs strategy.
Mr Kenny hinted that Fine Gael may propose a cut in the universal social charge for low earners. He said it was currently costing proposals with the Department of Finance, and would announce its plans next week.
Fine Gael is promising not to increase income tax or taxes on job-creating activity, and to cut PRSI for the lower-paid
The document, Working for our Future, proposes investing €7 billion in water infrastructure, broadband and energy.
This would be funded by money from the National Pension Reserve Fund and by selling off €4 billion in “non-strategic” State assets, including Bord Gáis and the ESB power-generation arm.
Mr Kenny said these assets would only be sold at the right time to raise money in the national interest.
The plan also provides for the creation of 45,000 placements for college interns who would be paid entry rates, work 20 hours a week and receive a €3,000 bursary for further training. Over 17,000 places would be provided in second-chance education but unemployed under-25s would have to keep a jobs diary and could be penalised for rejecting training or job offers.
Mr Kenny denied that Fine Gael was hiding behind Fianna Fáil policies introduced in the budget. He said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan could “least afford” to criticise his party’s figures because “none of his stood up”.
Mr Varadkar said it was “a bit rich” for Fianna Fáil to criticise his party for increasing the high rate of VAT when it intended doing the same thing over two years.
He claimed Labour’s fiscal policy was the most deflationary of all the parties because it relied most on tax increases.
Mr Kenny was asked about comments made by former Fine Gael minister Gemma Hussey, who said on Wednesday that the party should have changed leader last year and would now be heading for an overall majority if it had.
Mr Kenny replied that his former government colleague was out of politics and “she should stay out of politics” and keep her counsel. Ms Hussey had had her day, and should remember the difficulties she had when she was minister for education and the help he had given her at that time.
