Fine Gael will win over 300 seats on councils around the State in the June 5th local elections and get 100 women elected, the party’s director of elections, Frank Flannery today confidently declared as Fine Gael published its manifesto.
Local authorities’ main business in coming years should be to encourage job creation, and protect existing jobs, and to cut their own costs by abolishing quangoes and reducing administration costs, the Fine Gael document said.
Better planning rules should be enforced to ensure that people havedecent communities in which to live, while tougher action should occur to deal with anti-social behaviour.
‘Boy racers’ should be banned from driving around estates in “souped-up” cars with loud exhausts and blacked-out windows which “frighten and intimidate those in their vicinity.”
The legal limit exhaust noise is 80 decibels, yet roadside checks have revealed reading of up to 130 decibels, the manifesto declares, promising to give garda better equipment to put offenders off the road.
Local authorities should also enjoy powers to force property owners to maintain buildings free of vandalism and to put matters right within a week, or face a council fine.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the manifesto mostly dealt with national issues, such as the banking crisis, because that is what voters are raising on the doorsteps with the party’s 780 candidates:
“I make no apology for that,” he said.
The June 5th election gives voters the chance to “send a message of change” to the Government.
“Fine Gael believes that Ireland can return to growth and prosperity if we have the courage and vision to change the way we run our economy and govern our country. That is why our local election manifesto is unashamedly focused on job creation and protection and kick-starting the economy. Central to this is the implementation of Fine Gael’s Rebuilding Ireland €11bn stimulus plan to create more than 100,000 jobs in the new high tech and green energy sectors of the economy," he said.
“In parallel Ireland needs a Government that is not afraid of new ideas and is willing to embrace radical change. Fine Gael can and does embrace change. We have a bold, ambitious plan, which will also strengthen local democracy and help get Ireland growing again."
"Fine Gael would reduce the cost of running local government by getting rid of up to 80 quangoes which command an €800 budget, and cut meeting costs by council staff by ordering that more meetings are held by online web conference," he added.
