Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has said he would not support a cut or a tax on child benefit in next month’s Budget.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane radio programme on Saturday, Mr Kenny said he believed the way to tackle the crippling public expenditure on social welfare was not to adjust the rates but to get people back to work.
He said there were many thousands of people who relied on child benefit as a direct source of income. Mr Kenny said there were other ways of dealing with people on higher incomes who may not need the allowance as much as other sections of the community.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Kenny admitted he had not consulted party colleagues last month before announcing his intention to hold a referendum on the abolition of the Seanad if returned to power.
He denied the move represented “an edict” to party members, insisting there was a requirement from all leaders to take “leadership positions”, and that the electorate would have the final say on the fate of the second house.
Mr Kenny said: “The Seanad has lost of its focus and its original vocation and was now seen as a step down from the Dáil.”
Regarding the recent expenses’ controversy surrounding former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue, Mr Kenny said he favoured a system where all details regarding political expenses were published so as to make the process "transparent".
Asked if he felt the electorate saw him as a future taoiseach, Mr Kenny said he was "much happier" to maintain a strong support for the party rather than pursue his own approval rating.
He said the problems faced by the country were “beyond the competence of any one individual”, and that was why he had assembled "the strongest possible" team to lead the country.
“The reason people are flocking to Fine Gael is because of the quality of the candidates we have stood in the local, European and byelections.
We are in a position of an endless night with Fianna Fáil. It's all doom, gloom, depression, shoulders to the wheel, more cuts.”
“You have got to set a horizon. You have got to have a plan, to say this is what I’m going to do and this is the way I’m going to do it.”
Mr Kenny claimed the Government has resided in a “ministerial cocoon” for more than 10 years and was now “exhausted”.
He dismissed the suggestion that a vote for Fine Gael at the next general election would put Labour back in government.
He said his party would stand enough candidates to get an overall majority, predicting there would be “an avalanche against the Government”.
“I expect to win and to win big,” he said.
