Fianna Fáil’s uncosted fictional manifesto will be disastrous for the country

Fianna Fáil’s General Election manifesto is an uncosted work of fiction that will have a disastrous impact on the country, Fine Gael’s Director of Organisation, Paschal Donohoe, has said.

Minister Donohoe, said: “It is really remarkable that Fianna Fáil has not been able to present a properly costed set of proposals to the country. They haven’t set aside money to pay for basic health services or any money for a public service pay agreement. Once again we see the true facts exposed: the old Fianna Fáil hasn’t gone away.

“The Party that makes it up as it goes along, and always ends up landing the Irish people with the bill, hasn’t learned an iota from their disastrous stewardship of this country and the immense hardship they caused people – both here and those who were forced to move away.

“An analysis of Fianna Fáil’s manifesto unveils a litany of gaping holes that the Party is hoping nobody will notice until it is too late.”

Minister for Climate Action, Richard Bruton, said: “On climate action, as with other areas in the manifesto, Fianna Fáil have no real polices, no real solutions. On retrofitting ,they propose a new quango and only set aside €200m in funding, even though we are already spending €150m and plan to increase this to €400m per year. They also make the ludicrous suggestion which would see the value of people’s cars disappear overnight, with no plan to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles.

“Climate Action is too important an issue to be making flippant pledges that are simply undeliverable.”

Meanwhile, General Election candidate for Dublin South West, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, criticised Fianna Fáil for their total lack of commitment to delivering gender equality for the people of Ireland.

She said: “FF has little of substance to say on how they would promote equality in Ireland, offering platitudes in lieu of policy.

“By contrast Fine Gael has introduced gender quota legislation for political parties, published legislation to ensure gender pay information is published; introduced subsidised childcare and are challenging corporate and State boards on diversity – but we know it’s not enough.

“A new Citizens Assembly to advance Gender Equality, is meeting today for the first time and is due to report within six months.  Fine Gael will implement the recommendations of this Assembly,” Ms O’Malley Dunlop concluded.

Major flaws in the Fianna Fáil manifesto include:

1. Fianna Fáil has no costings document

Where is it?

2. Fianna Fáil’s SSIA scheme would increase house prices but not supply

The scheme is capped at 25,000 households per year, meaning some first time buyers will be excluded. There is no explanation as to how the cap will work. It will do nothing to increase the supply of new homes, worse still, it will stall supply. Savers will have to wait three years before getting their money.

Fine Gael’s Help to Buy tax rebate scheme will provide a maximum of €30,000 or 10% towards the cost of buying or building a new home. Claims are quickly progressed by the Revenue Commissioners.

3. Fianna Fáil fails to adequately provide for a new public sector pay deal

Fianna Fáil has not set aside sufficient money to give hard-working public and civil servants a pay rise. They say they will use the €1.2 billion fund they are “holding back” to deal with lots of issues including public pay. If they applied 80% of this fund to public pay, it would only provide for a 1.2% pay rise per annum.

Fine Gael has set aside €2 billion specifically for a public sector pay deal.

4. Fianna Fáil will leave the country’s health Budget underfunded

Fianna Fáil are under-funding our health service. They are not setting aside enough money to pay for our ageing population, and a new public sector pay deal.

Fine Gael has a realistic and costed additional €5 billion spending plan over the next five years. As is set out in our document, €750m of this relates to demographic allowances, nearly €1 billion is for the cost to the health service of the current and future public pay agreements and €3.2 billion is for new health expenditure.

5. Fianna Fáil’s Capital Gains Tax reduction from 33% to 25% would stall economic activity

This will mean an immediate halt to transactions and economic activity as companies and individuals hold off in the expectation of a very significant cut in their tax bill.

Changes like this are only made on Budget night and the fact that FF is proposing it in a manifesto underlines their total lack of readiness for Government.

6. Fianna Fáil’s aim for a complete removal of fossil fuel cars by 2035 is too harsh on motorists

Fianna Fail’s plan would allow you to buy a diesel car in 2034, and then “completely remove” it from you the following year. There is no explanation for how this could work.

Fine Gael’s plan will ensure one million electric vehicles are on our roads by 2030. We will ban the new registration/sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030, and phase out all older cars by 2045. This will allow people plenty of time to plan and won’t mean that people’s cars become worthless overnight.

7. Fianna Fáil’s proposed Childminders Tax Credit for under 3s does not go far enough

This is only for registered childminders only. There are only 81 registered childminders in the country! This will not help families with their childcare bills.

Fine Gael want parents and their childminders to access the National Childcare Scheme to reduce their bills and increase quality. We will publish a Childminding Support and Inclusion Plan to expedite this access.