The Labour Party has today criticised Fine Gael for its electoral promise, announced yesterday, to compensate those who lost money after investing in Eircom shares.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Irelandthis morning, party leader Mr Ruairí Quinn said the proposal "introduced a form of auction politics that would do great damage to the body politic".
Mr Quinn also said, the idea of appealing to individual sectional groups, without considering the needs of society as a whole, was "regrettable".
Yesterday Fine Gael party leader Mr Michael Noonan indicated that should his party be voted into Government in the upcoming general election, he would allow small investors, who lost money after buying Eircom shares during the company's flotation process, to offset their losses against taxable income.
Mr Noonan said: "This relief, to be introduced as a measure in our first finance bill, will only apply to Eircom shares because of the Government’s central role in this fiasco". Fine Gael estimates the cost of the scheme at around €80 million.
He said the Government had "duped" people into believing Eircom shares were a sound investment and that Fine Gael was proposing compensation measures "in the interest of fairness and to help restore peoples’ confidence in the Initial Public Offer process".