SF warns against 'casino capitalism'

The only economic plan that Fianna Fáil offered was "casino capitalism", Louth TD Arthur Morgan told the Sinn Féin ardfheis when…

The only economic plan that Fianna Fáil offered was "casino capitalism", Louth TD Arthur Morgan told the Sinn Féin ardfheis when urging support for the party's draft all-Ireland economic strategy, Financing the Future.

The 12-page document, which was endorsed, broadly calls for all-island tax harmonisation, tax reform, longer-term borrowing, higher tax on higher earners, "robust regulation" of the banking system, use of the pension reserve fund, and sustainable funding for local government.

Mr Morgan said the lesson of the current economic crisis was a need for more proactive and far-seeing economic planning.

"Economic circumstances are changing. Ireland is not competitive but cutting wages, slashing public services and delivering people into poverty will not make Ireland competitive," he said.

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"Competitiveness is underpinned by stable public finances, a working banking system, and a broad vision for the economy and society. Fianna Fáil has provided none of these," he added.

"There is no vision. There is no plan, there is only casino capitalism. Speculation was prioritised over sustainable development for over a decade," said Mr Morgan.

He added: "Ireland's future competitiveness cannot and must not be based on a low wage, low tax system. We cannot hope to build the kind of physical and social infrastructure needed to improve our competitiveness if we continue to cut taxes, as some in the business community are demanding.

"We should approach our revenue intake as a means of developing the state, not as the sole way of attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland."

Sinn Féin’s leader in the Dáil Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin directed a full-blooded attack on the National Assets Management Agency (Nama) which, he said, for generations to come would be a "millstone around the neck of the Irish people".

"It is a bail-out for the greediest and most corrupt in Irish society - the bankers and the speculators who have been pampered by Fianna Fáil," he said.

He supported a motion, which the conference endorsed, that opposed Nama and called for the creation of a state bank to provide affordable mortgages and credit for viable businesses.

"Among the losers to NAMA are the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs, who are saddled with massive mortgages, children, the carers and the cared-for, and the sick," said Mr Ó Caoláin.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Mitchel McLaughlin said fiscal powers including tax varying powers should be transferred from London to the Northern Executive and Assembly. He also called for the promotion of North-South co-operation and economic harmonisation because Ireland could "not afford two economies".

Sinn Féin chairman Declan Kearney said the party must develop "common sense fiscal and economic policies" and accused the Government of "stabilising capitalism at the expense of Irish workers".

He called for a new model of "economic planning and regulation" that provided for "wealth distribution and economic governance".

Ruadhán Mac Aodháin, from Dublin, in supporting Sinn Féin's plans for economic recovery, referred to a perception in the South of Sinn Fein as a "Northern-based" party. "We need to start engaging on that issue," he said.