The Government parties promised everything bar daily foot massages from Michael Noonan if only they were put in power. We’re well over 100 days in but sadly, the election pledges are looking shaky. Here’s JOE’s round-up of how our glorious leaders have been doing.
By Robert Carry
The ‘Burn the bondholders’ promise
Both Labour and Fine Gael puffed out their chests and promised to march over to Brussels to demand a renegotiation of the IMF/EU deal that would involve a reduced interest rate and the burning of the German and French bondholders who actually incurred the debts by backing dodgy Irish banks in the first place.
So, they got a crew of heavies together, tooled up and headed for a showdown in Belgium. Sadly, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel spanked the arse of the Irish contingent before sending them home with their tails between their legs. There would be no burning of bondholders. There would be no renegotiated interest rate. I know Enda and Eamonn aren’t exactly tough, but you’d have thought they could at least take a German aul’ one and a French midget.
The cronyism promise
The horse Enda sat astride whilst condemning the cronyism that marked the Fianna Fáil era was a high one. However, the current Dáil deputies have showed themselves to be just as likely to indulge in a bit of harmless nepotism.
A survey by the Irish Independent found that at least 25 TDs – out of 166 in the Dáil – had already hired family members.
Fine Gael’s Training and Skills Minister Ciaran Cannon hired his wife as his secretary, with a not-to-be-sniffed at salary of €47,000 – and his brother-in-law as one of his drivers. Meanwhile, Fine Gael’s junior agriculture minister Shane McEntee’s daughter and sister are job-sharing as his personal assistant post, and Labour’s Willie Penrose – a super-junior minister which means he’s a member of the Cabinet – and Sean Sherlock have given employment to their brother and sister respectively.
But they’re obviously just the best people for the job.
The jobs promise
The jobs promise was Enda’s number one war cry throughout the election build up and “Help protect and create jobs” was point one of the famous five-point plan.
According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), live register figures increased to 14.8 per cent last month and the number of people signing on is now the highest seen in 2011.
The number of casual and part-time workers signing on increased over the year by 7.7 per cent to 84,933 while the number of long-term claimants has increased by 50,269, or 39.9 per cent, in the year.
The tax promise
Another big one, which was point two of the five-pronged electoral assault by Enda and the boys, was “Keep taxes low while fixing the deficit”.
In fairness, this one was about as logical as pledging to “give birth whilst avoiding getting pregnant” so we should have expected a row-back. However, few could have foreseen how dramatic the u-turn would end up being.
A new water tax, based on the installation of household meters, is looking likely while a ‘household tax’ is set to be introduced in January 2012. We’ve also had a new tax slapped onto private pensions (which the TDs won’t pay, obviously).
To top it off, speaking yesterday, Noonan warned that he is not in a position to rule out any type of tax which means the parties’ definitive promise not to increase income tax rates or introduce changes to bands or credits is looking about as reliable as a Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme.
The ‘Abolish the Seanad’ promise
Both Labour and Fine Gael were promising to abolish the Seanad once in power but rather than actually cutting the throat of this useless, heroically undemocratic institution, they allowed a planned election to the upper house to take place. This meant a whole raft of new senators were handed five-year terms. Fine Gael and Labour both increased their seats in the Seanad election. Surprisingly.
The ‘Abolish FÁS’ promise
Part of the Labour-Fine Gael programme for government promised that the shambolic training agency, would be abolished. Then they approved FÁS’ decision to award a €300,000 public relations contract to a company which counted Mark Mortell, one of the brains behind Fine Gael’s election victory, among its bosses.
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