Pact tailored to core constituency

The devil appears to be in the detail with the the document from the Greens and Fianna Fáil

The big-ticket item in the Programme for Government is the commitment to retain free fees for third-level education.

This decision had not yet been taken by the Government and there are suggestions it would not have gone ahead anyway, in light of the extra burdens already imposed on middle-income families. Nevertheless the Greens are now in a position to claim the credit.

The Greens failed to roll back the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools from one to 27 instead of the one to 28 figure introduced last October. This would have caused an increase in the ratio at secondary level, so the smaller party had to settle for “no further increase . . . for the lifetime of this government”.

However, the Greens were gleefully citing congratulatory messages from teachers on Saturday for the promise to provide 500 teaching posts over the next three years.

As always, the devil is in the detail and the coming months will show whether other resounding declarations are implemented. These include the commitment to “reform residency rules to ensure that those who benefit from living in Ireland are subject to taxation in Ireland”.

Tax exiles tend to have good lawyers and accountants and it will be a challenging exercise to pin them down.

So that’s one to watch. Another that will excite great interest is the pledge to introduce a Site Valuation Tax for non-agricultural land. This is a decaffeinated version of property tax, which has now bitten the dust twice. There is something in the Irish people’s DNA that is highly-resistant to property tax so don’t bet the mortgage that this one will work.

Water charges are to be part of a new system for financing local government. Already Joe Higgins MEP is threatening a “water war”. Socialists generally like extra taxes, but not this one, apparently.

The Green Party demand to reduce the number of TDs met strong Fianna Fáil resistance and has been delegated to an independent electoral commission which will “examine and make recommendations” on this and other issues.

Much attention has focused on the proposal for a “political fund” which would be the repository for corporate donations. These will be distributed to parties in accordance with their performance in the previous general election so that money contributed by, say, Ryanair could end up supporting Sinn Féin or the Socialist Party. It’s hard to envisage this proposal ever being implemented.

Meanwhile, TDs and Senators will eventually have to produce vouched expenses claims which are to be published regularly.

The document is somewhat ambiguous on social welfare, stating that, “strongest emphasis will be placed on protecting basic payments for the most vulnerable in society”. There are a couple of loopholes here: does “placing emphasis” on certain monetary amounts mean the same as not cutting them, and who exactly are the “most vulnerable” group referred to?

There is nothing dramatic in the section on health such as the demand for a single-tier universal health system, included in the Greens’ original wish-list, which now becomes, “further progressive, detailed steps towards building universal health services that provide high-quality care, fair access and affordability for all”.

Locating the Abbey in the GPO in time for the centenary of the Easter Rising is an intriguing prospect, if it comes to pass. The commitment on inspecting “civilian” aircraft for possible rendition prisoners is vague and, perhaps most surprisingly, there is no promise to at least freeze overseas aid payments, much less overturn the cuts.

The equality section will disappoint the campaigners who lobbied against the cuts in the Equality Authority which led to the resignation of chief executive Niall Crowley. The authority does not get a mention under this heading nor is there any reference to a new State infrastructure to deal with equality, which was one of the original Green demands.

Backbench Fianna Fáil TDs were said to be agitated at the prospect of a ban on hare-coursing and this clearly fell from the agenda. But there is comfort for the Greens in the commitment to phase out fur farming over three years and bring an end to stag hunting.

There is much emphasis on job creation but some might say it is all a little vague.

One definite new appointment will be that of a chief information officer who will “provide leadership” in the development of information and communications technology, reporting directly to the Taoiseach.

This sounds like a kind of “Government techie” who will be, as the document says, “driving” (bullying?) various departments to get their act together on new technology.

A daring move which smacks of the long-standing Green agenda is the undertaking to declare this State “a GM-free zone, free from the cultivation of all GM plants”.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, GM stands for “Genetically Modified” and this move will make party members happy but may generate objections in other quarters.

At a more basic political level, there is a commitment to “introduce new measures to protect families having difficulties with their home mortgage payments”. This might include the bank taking over the house and renting it back to the original owner.

There is a sweetener for critics of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). Banks which take part in Nama will be obliged to offer deposit accounts to customers “which will be ringfenced for lending to Green projects”. It’s not clear what “ringfenced” means and “Green projects” are not defined.