FORMER TAOISEACH John Bruton insisted yesterday there was no difference between his views on the economy and those of his party, Fine Gael.
Mr Bruton said that while he supported the action taken by the Government to deal with the problems in the public finances, particularly pay, he agreed with Fine Gael that it had failed to take innovative measures on the jobs crisis.
“I believe it is good that Ireland has acted to deal with the public finances. Fine Gael supported the approach involving spending cuts of €4 billion but strongly criticised the failure to take innovative measures on jobs.
“Fine Gael members are allowed freedom of thought on issues but, as it happens, there is no difference between my views and those of the party on the economy,” said Mr Bruton.
In a recent speech in Limerick the former taoiseach and former EU ambassador to the United States said the greatest risk Ireland now faced was the prospect of losing its best ever educated generation to emigration.
“There is a comforting assumption that, just as emigrants returned in the 1970s and the 1990s, this generation of potential emigrants will return too in 10 or 15 years. This is unrealistic,” he said.
Mr Bruton pointed to recent research which showed that unless entitlements for the elderly changed, Ireland will face a bigger problem between 2020 and 2050 than most other European countries. This was a problem that would dwarf anything that had been brought about by the banking crisis.
“To support its aged population on present levels of entitlement, Ireland would have to have levels of taxation far above what we now have. Today’s emigrants will not want to return here to pay those taxes unless we do something big now to change the entire dynamic of our public and private sectors.”
Mr Bruton said we needed to have an honest debate on how the very large additional long-term fiscal burden of ageing can be borne. “Changes will be necessary and difficult, but these should not be sprung on people.
“That is the best way to keep the essentials, and to avoid conflict or hasty ill-considered decisions which might otherwise be announced overnight, and withdrawn a week later.”
He said the long term (2020-2050) public finance implications of continuing present policies, while having proportionately far more older people in our population, needed to be laid out fully for people, including the tax implications for those of working age.
Mr Bruton added that the critical challenge was to ensure that as many as possible of our well-educated 15- to 28-year-olds stayed here in Ireland, and work here, not just pursue endless courses.
He suggested a PRSI and income tax holiday up to the age of 26 for young people who have completed a third-level qualification to make it attractive for employers to employ such people. It might be accompanied by a relaxation of the minimum wage rules.
Another suggestion was an internship programme in all Irish Government services as a temporary measure to keep talent in the country. “Both these proposals are short-term stop-gap measures. We need to change our entire development model as a nation if we are to keep this vital generation in Ireland,” said Mr Bruton.