Harney calls for implementation of Forfas report

THE leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, has challenged the Government to implement the Forfas report on long…

THE leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, has challenged the Government to implement the Forfas report on long term economic planning.

Ms Harney said that instead of taking action on its proposals, the Labour Party and Democratic Left were more likely to consign the report to the political dustbin because they had no appetite for its radical programme.

Identifying a division between Fine Gael and its "socialist partners" on the merits of the report, which deals with economic planning to the year 2010, Ms Harney said the Government lacked the coherence and political commitment to transform Ireland into an enterprise culture.

Ms Harney expressed satisfaction that a Government agency had produced a report very much in line with her party's approach to economic management. She welcomed the agency's recommendations: reducing personal taxation and payroll taxes as a means of stimulating job creation; cutting the standard rate of corporation tax; the privatisation of State assets in telecommunications and power generation; and the encouragement of greater private sector involvement in the provision of public infrastructure.

READ MORE

Mr Pat Fitzpatrick, the Green Party's spokesman on Enterprise and Employment, welcomed the report but warned that a 5 per cent growth rate for 15 successive years would be environmentally destructive. Infinite growth in a finite world was not sustainable, he said, and they should concentrate on growth in the quality of life rather than in the economy.