A set of proposals to make Ireland less vulnerable to oil price rises would be put in place by Fine Gael in government, the party leader, Mr John Bruton, said yesterday.
During a two-day think-in of the parliamentary party, Mr Bruton said his party had committed itself to building up areas of employment as alternatives to centres such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, reducing commuting distances and vulnerability to volatile energy prices. Possible locations included Letterkenny, Athlone, Tralee and Dundalk.
A Plan for the Nation, the blueprint for the party's election manifesto, which was first published in November, had addressed the vulnerability of Ireland to an oil price rise, said Mr Bruton, "something the current Government is only now being forced to address".
"We commit ourselves to making the railway system the primary artery of national development, and as far as possible, having houses and businesses built as close as possible to the rail network," said Mr Bruton, adding this would put the maximum amount of traffic onto the railways and off the roads.
The party also pledged to set itself a national target that bus and train fares were kept well below the cost of increases in petrol or private motoring, and that bus fares should be subsidised.
Fine Gael would overhaul the medical card system so that all those on low incomes qualified for free medical services. It would also reform local authority planning guidelines to facilitate the provision of childcare in residential areas.
All taxpayers who earned less than £200 a week would be taken out of the income tax net, he said. The standard rate band would be extended to take 160,000 taxpayers off the top rate and create a new middle income tax rate of 35 per cent.
Mr Bruton said the manifesto derived from a vision of what Ireland should look like in 2010. "It is a social vision - a vision of the quality of life to which Irish people should aspire. It is not a vision based on the GDP or on some such narrow economic measure of success. GDP does not measure quality of life.
"To put it simply, Fine Gael wants an Ireland in which people will have space and time . . . For lack of space and time the pressures of modern life are leading to family breakdown, to abuse of alcohol and drugs and to social isolation."
Mr Bruton said the recent tribunals and scandals had led to a crisis of confidence. There was a declining belief in the probity and efficacy of many of the State's institutions. "There is a sense that whereas things run by the private sector, by families and by businesses work, things run by the State and its institutions do not."