Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has called for the national pay deal to be suspended for at least 12 months, saying the pact was no longer affordable in the current downturn.
In an address to his party’s national conference in Wexford tonight, Mr Kenny said the deal was negotiated in “a different context with different expectations” and would have to be put on hold if the deterioration in public finances was to be halted.
The pay deal, which has been backed by unions and employers, will see workers gain increases of 6 per cent over the next 21 months.
Mr Kenny said the “painful truth” was the country could not afford the deal and “wage restraint in the short term was preferable to job losses in the long term”.
He accused the Government of being “paralysed” in the face of the current banking crisis and called for the immediate re-capitalisation of the banks.
The Mayo TD said too many jobs in small businesses were being threatened by the lack of access to credit.
Mr Kenny claimed “bad banks and delinquent developers” were having too much say in guiding Government policy.
He said the Government should take preference shares in Irish banks so the taxpayer could get a dividend from the investment and not foreign investors.
“Once that's done, they [the banks] must be told that neither they, nor their regulators, will walk away unscathed from this. Our nation has been damaged by their reckless behaviour. They must be held accountable,” he said.
Following his party’s strong showing in last week’s Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll, Mr Kenny confidently predicted his team would form next government.
“Soon – maybe sooner than people think – the people of Ireland will give us the opportunity to change this country for the better. The Ireland Fine Gael is determined to build is an Ireland defined by merit, not money”.
He said the Coalition had become “bloated and lazy” while in government was characterized by a “directionless economic management”.
In his speech, Mr Kenny said certain communities in the State were under threat from “a new breed of ruthless criminals” which required a new and tougher response.
He said his party, if elected to govern, would introduce 25-year mandatory sentences for murder and new powers to control the movements and activities of gang members.
Mr Kenny also claimed the Government has consistently refused to address “the horrors of our healthcare system”.
He said there had been no greater betrayal than the Government’s deliberately targeting our elderly people in the last Budget “to pay for their own mistakes by removing their medical cards”.
He said Fine Gael in government would deliver a universal healthcare plan “where service is delivered because you need it, not because you can pay for it”.
