THE ROW between Fine Gael and Labour over their respective fiscal plans became increasingly hostile yesterday. Senior figures from both parties clashed repeatedly on the questions of taxes, national debt reduction and “stealth charges”.
The country’s largest trade union, Siptu, also entered the fray, with its president, Jack O’Connor, portraying a single-party Fine Gael government as a “recipe for disaster”. He called for a “balanced government” which he defined as a Labour/Fine Gael administration.
Lucinda Creighton of Fine Gael responded to Mr O’Connor’s comments by saying Fine Gael would put taxpayers ahead of the “vested interests that Mr O’Connor represented”.
Yesterday’s flurry of claim and counter-claim by both sides followed the launch of the Fine Gael manifesto by party leader Enda Kenny.
At the manifesto launch, Mr Kenny criticised Labour for extending the timeframe for reducing the national deficit by two years: “Irish people do not want to think there is an interminable night in front of them in relation to this burden.”
Speaking later on News at One, Labour's Pat Rabbitte said there were a number of areas in the Fine Gael document where people would be hit by cuts or taxes, including child benefit, car tax, health insurance and water charges. "I don't believe the low-tax party slogan that Michael Noonan and his colleagues have put on Fine Gael," he said, saying the marginal rate was 55 per cent. He told RTÉ there was a "black hole" in the Fine Gael plan. The party would have to find an additional €5 billion to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of national income.
Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Mr Noonan, speaking on the same programme, said Labour’s claim was “bizarre”: “Europe says that if we do the €9 billion, we will be well on our way to getting 3 per cent by 2014.”
Leo Varadkar criticised Mr Rabbitte for saying Labour had only committed to the 3 per cent by 2014 target to pull on the green jersey last autumn. He said that showed Labour had no intention of reaching the target and had a “serious and growing credibility problem”. But the Labour spokesman responded by saying the EU-IMF intervention had completely altered the context of the party’s fiscal policy.
The row between the parties is set to escalate further today following the placing by Labour of an “attack advertisement” on Fine Gael in newspapers.
The ad is entitled: “Fine Gael, Every Little Hurts” and it lists six taxes and cuts that it claims “Fine Gael have in store for you”.
However, both Mr Rabbitte and party leader Eamon Gilmore were careful to keep relations between the parties cordial with some more conciliatory comments.
Mr Rabbitte said there were “hugely important matters on which we are in broad agreement”.
Mr Gilmore told Raidió na Gaeltachta, there was much common ground to put together an effective programme for government.
Figures released by RTÉ yesterday showed that 961,000 people watched the five-way TV debate on The Frontlineon Monday. It was the most-viewed programme in Ireland so far this year.
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