THE GREEN Party is seeking the establishment of an all-party forum to discuss a four-year plan to deal with the “grave” state of the public finances.
Green Party leader John Gormley will contact the other party leaders today to see if they are willing to come together in the forum, along with their finance spokespeople, to discuss figures being made available by the Department of Finance.
Mr Gormley is hoping the parties can meet as soon as possible, ahead of the publication in early November of a four-year budgetary plan aimed at bringing the country’s deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2014.
The group would comprise the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance, the leaders of Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party and Sinn Féin, along with their respective finance spokespeople. Department of Finance officials would brief the group and explain the basis for their figures and projections.
“I think the situation is now so grave that it’s absolutely incumbent on all of the political parties, despite their political differences, to come together,” said Mr Gormley.
“And I would suggest that we do so without preconditions. Let’s talk through the issues, let’s be as open and honest as possible with each other, because I think this is what the [European] commission is looking for. This is certainly what the market is looking for – they want buy-in from all political parties because this, after all, has to be a four-year plan.”
Mr Gormley said he was not talking about a national government in the short term, but the situation was so grave that it required all the political leaders to come together and discuss the issues.
“We need to talk openly and honestly, get the figures from the Department of Finance, look at the parameters, look at the measures that are required so that we can get broad buy-in from all the political parties for a four-year plan,” he said.
Mr Gormley insisted he was not looking for a blank cheque from the three Opposition parties, but said he came from a party that had specialised in consensus over the years and consensus was urgently required.
“That means the political parties coming together without preconditions to discuss the issues, look at what is required in terms of expenditure cuts, look at all of the parameters and measures that are required and to get broad political buy-in . . . and if we don’t get that, the situation is quite grave I’m afraid.”
Earlier Mr Gormley said in an interview on Today FM he was open to the idea of national government. He said such a government could be considered for an agreed period of time, possibly after the next election.
Also yesterday two former Irish EU commissioners suggested that a new approach to politics was needed to deal with the current situation.
Peter Sutherland said the Opposition had as important a role to play as the Government in the months ahead as it appeared there was a significant chance of an election in the not-too-distant future.
“If Ireland’s creditors around the world are to continue to lend Ireland money, they need to be confident that any succeeding government will continue to take the tough decisions required to ensure that Ireland can continue to pay its bills.”
Mr Sutherland said that if creditors lost that confidence in the run up to the election, the incoming government might find that the International Monetary Fund and the EU authorities were effectively making decisions for them.
Another former commissioner, Ray MacSharry, who presided over the spending cuts that restored the economy after 1987, also called for new thinking. He said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should consider a common assessment of what needed to be done because about two-thirds of the electorate usually voted for these two parties of the centre, who had similar views on the economy.
“The problem is you then get coalitions involving one of the bigger parties, tilted towards the right as with the PDs, or towards the left with Labour, even though the bulk of the people favour the centre,” Mr MacSharry said.