Fianna Fail has laid the basis for a 10-year social and economic plan to take the Republic through the current economic boom and beyond. The plan, which envisages the State's annual budget surplus mushrooming to several billion pounds by the middle of the next decade, will aim to deal with the challenges of economic success, from a growing population with increased numbers of pensioners to a predicted 600,000 extra cars on the road by the year 2003.
The challenges were outlined by economists and other specialists during the extended parliamentary party meeting in Ballyconnell, Co Leitrim, which ended yesterday. The two-day event was described by spokesmen as heralding the party's first major policy initiative since 1987, when the Charles Haughey-led government slashed public spending in a move now credited with paving the way for the economic boom.
Speaking afterwards, the Government chief whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, said that the party had been presented with "stark choices" on how it wished to deal with predicted trends. "For instance, unless we continue to discriminate in favour of home ownership, we will inevitably move towards the higher-cost rental model of the US. That will happen unless we implement the Bacon report, and Bacon two, three and four, if necessary."
While the economic and social analysis was provided by experts from NCB Stockbrokers and the ESRI respectively, Mr Brennan said, the keynote had been in the address by Dr Kevin Whelan on the "Republicanism of 1798". Mr Brennan added: "Prof Whelan reminded us that, as republicans, we believe in organising a society, not just an economy."
The overnight event in Ballyconnell's Slieve Russell Hotel was said by party veterans to have been the first time the parliamentary body had met in its entirety in a social setting. The Fianna Fail chairman, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, said it had been an exercise in getting away from the "negative vibes" created by controversies such as the Ray Burke donations affair. "There was very little about the past or present here. It was all about the future", he said.
However, the Taoiseach drew applause from TDs and senators yesterday when he told them he had requested a Revenue investigation into the propriety of a past practice in which donors had picked up, and paid directly, bills made out to the party for services provided by others.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern restated the Government's commitment to cutting taxation, rejecting suggestions that the economy could not cope with more tax cuts. "The view that we have a low-tax economy is not correct", he said. "We still have an enormous amount of people paying the higher rate of tax on lower levels of income, and this is something we have to address, as resources permit."
The Government remained committed to helping those on lower incomes in three ways: creating more jobs, keeping low-paid workers out of the tax net and, where they came into the net, ensuring that tax was as low as possible.
Referring to the party's plans for a charter on fund-raising, announced on Thursday, the Taoiseach said that this would lay down clear rules on what members could raise for their own campaigns, for their local constituency organisations and for the party as a whole. It would clarify the position on gifts such as match tickets or hospitality.
Mr Ahern refused to say whether the charter would involve a ban on cash donations or cheques made out to cash, such as the one given by Rennicks to Mr Ray Burke. "I'm not drafting the terms here", he said. "But I don't want a situation where, if somebody gets a cup of tea or a pint, they have to keep receipts. I don't see anybody else in Irish life doing that."
