The economy and job creation are dominating the two-day Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting in Galway that began today.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, and Minister for Enterprise Bruton were the primary speakers during today’s main session.
Mr Noonan said the Government will outline a three- to four-year plan "sometime in October" showing the nature of expenditure reductions and tax rises that people can expect from the start of 2012.
Mr Noonan also said the National Asset Management Agency has to start putting properties up for sale to "create a market". The Minister said he would encourage Nama to sell "everything" in a "systematic" manner to get Ireland's property market moving again.
The main session tomorrow at the meeting will focus on the presidential election campaign with party candidate Gay Mitchell addressing fellow TDs, Senators and MEPs.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Norah Gibbons, head of advocacy at Barnardos will also speak at a session geared towards child protection and the planned referendum on children’s rights.
Several protests took place outside the Fine Gael two-day conference at the Radisson Hotel in Galway. Two students protesting over the university fee issue engaged in a “lock-on” protest at the entrance to the hotel, and up to 30 members of the Roscommon Hospital Action Committee also demonstrated, and confronted Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Frank Feighan on his arrival. Mr Feighan had to be escorted into the hotel by gardaí.
Mr Bruton said this afternoon he hopes that reform of the pension system will get under way after the forthcoming budget.
Speaking after it was announced that the former secretary general to the government Dermot McCarthy left his job with a €713,000 retirement and pension package, Mr Bruton said public pension commitments would in the long-term be capped and become fairer and more sustainable.
He said the Government could not act retrospectively and that any changes would only impact on entitlements going forward.
Mr Bruton told RTÉ News at One that the Programme for Government committed to capping the amount provided to pensions at the top levels of the public and private sectors. On the economy, Mr Bruton said the Irish recovery was fragile and that the Government needed to hold its nerve and implement policies that could turn the economy around.
He said there was merit to the suggestion that the Government should lay out the adjustments it would need to make over a number of years in order to keep the public informed. However, he said fiscal adjustments were an inexact science.
Separately, Roscommon TD Denis Naughten yesterday indicated that he is unlikely to rejoin the Fine Gael parliamentary party in the short to medium term.
Mr Naughten has removed all references to Fine Gael from his website and literature and yesterday said that he was, de facto, operating as an Independent TD. He also said the Fine Gael organisation in Roscommon had “fallen apart” and was non-operational in the county as a result of the controversy over emergency services at its hospital.
Mr Naughten said that unlike other TDs who had lost the party whip in the past he had been afforded no chance to address colleagues before the whip was removed after he refused to support the Government line on a Dáil vote on Roscommon hospital.
He argued that Fine Gael had made very clear commitments about the hospital before the election and had not honoured them. “From a historical perspective, Fine Gael acted very quickly to throw me out of the parliamentary party.”
He said that his rejoining the parliamentary party was now a matter for Fine Gael and for the Minister for Health. “It depends on what type of package they are putting up in Roscommon and whether they will honour the commitment prior to the election. I made my position crystal clear to the party well in advance of any private member’s motion.”
Additional reporting: Bloomberg