Social Democrats ask FF and FG to provide costings for coalition framework

The Social Democrats have written to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin asking them to provide costings for their new coalition framework.

In the letter, seen by The Irish Times, the party asked the two leaders for the fiscal and economic projections for the next five years which underpin the framework document.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil this week published the document which contains ten key missions.

Between them the two parties have 72 Dáil seats, eight short of a majority, and both have said they want a third, smaller party and some Independents in a coalition government.

How will parties consult members on government formation amid Covid-19?

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FG-FF document ducks the big economic challenges ahead

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Capital spending deemed key to FF-FG coalition government

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The document says that there will be no increases in income tax or USC, no cuts to core welfare rates – understood to be those separate to payments established to deal with the effects of the Covid-19 crisis – and that capital spending will be a priority and will be funded through borrowing if necessary.

It also commits to significant State investment in the areas of health and housing, among other sectors.

In their letter, Soc Dems co-leaders Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall have asked how economic projections would be impacted by a potential sustained economic shutdown due to Covid-19.

They also ask how the two parties’ projections would be impacted in the context of a hard or soft Brexit.

Furthermore the letter asks “what is the level of projected borrowing to implement the total reforms which you have outlined in the Framework Document over the next five years, excluding any costs associated with dealing with the Covid-19 emergency, and is that borrowing anticipated to be within the framework of the EU fiscal rules and the stability and growth pact?”.

The party has also written to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe with similar questions about the economic outlook and have sought the Government's macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts for the next two to three years.