FIANNA FÁIL:THE LABOUR Party was constantly looking over its shoulder at Sinn Féin and seeking to outbid it in terms of populism and "unreal" economic policies, according to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Under questioning from reporters, the Minister also defended his record, saying that the worst was over for the economy in December 2009.
He told a news conference at party election HQ in Dublin yesterday morning that, over the last 2½ years, Fianna Fáil in government had taken the “very difficult decisions”.
“We have secured €20.5 billion of the €30 billion adjustment needed to bring our budget back close to balance,” he said.
“The latest data on our tax receipts, manufacturing output and unemployment show that a recovery is taking shape.” Mr Lenihan said the election debate, “should be about how we secure and consolidate that recovery, that’s absolutely vital, and how we maintain the economy on a pathway of sustainable growth and job creation”.
But this was not the issue the Opposition was addressing: “My impression, politically, is that the Labour Party is looking over its shoulder all the time at Sinn Féin, and it’s afraid of being outbid in populist stakes and unreal economic policies.”
As for Fine Gael, he said: “Essentially they are hiding behind the decisions we have already taken.”
The Minister claimed the main Opposition party had been planning to increase VAT by 1 per cent next year. Noting a denial of this by Fine Gael frontbencher Leo Varadkar on RTÉ the previous night, he said the policy might well be revised in the course of the election campaign.
He said such an increase “would have a very bad effect on the retail sector and doesn’t, candidly, show much business or commercial judgment from a party that is putting itself forward as a party of business and commercial judgment in this election”.
When it was put to him that he had said the “worst is over” for the economy in 2009, Mr Lenihan replied: “Sorry, when did I say ‘the worst is over’ in 2009? Again, these matters develop a life of their own, I find. Could you give me the reference to that please?”
The Minister, when told he had used the phrase in his budget statement to the Dáil on December 9th, 2009, responded: “Yes, yes, and that was the same as ‘turning the corner’. We did stabilise the economy, the worst was over.
“We saw an 8 per cent decline in GDP and 10 or 11 per cent decline in GNP in 2009. We saw declines in real wealth the previous year as well, smaller but still 4 or 5 per cent and very substantial.
“So yes, the worst was over then because we haven’t had any further declines since we stabilised.We’ve stabilised the employment position, we’ve stabilised the public finances, that’s what’s happened.
“And that’s the basis of those particular comments. Now, look, we can get fixated about words, but let’s be clear that’s what I said and that was the economic record at the time,” Mr Lenihan said.
The Minister denied having said in 2008 that the bank guarantee was “the cheapest bailout in the world”. He commented yesterday: “I said, ‘our bailout so far has been the cheapest in the world’.
“And that’s as far as I went on record on this. I’ve seen many television programmes attribute to me other words, as you have, so I don’t blame you in any way for putting it to me that way because you’d have picked it up in the atmospherics.
“But I was very careful to say ‘so far’ on that occasion . . . So it’s just important when you’re quoting something that you look at the reference and see exactly what was said,” he said.