THE GREEN Party has focused its criticism on the Labour Party at a press conference to mark the Government’s first year in office, asserting that Fine Gael and the Department of Finance are running affairs in Government.
Party leader Eamon Ryan said yesterday the key decision made by the new Government in its first day in office was that Fine Gael rather than Labour would hold the Finance brief.
“All the political posturing from Labour in Opposition on the economic crisis was abandoned, as Eamon Gilmore turned what he had called treason into his new reason,” said Mr Ryan.
He said the Government had largely adopted the banking and budgetary policy of the previous government.
He added it would be wrong for the Greens not to acknowledge the Government’s success in pursuing those policies, which had given the Coalition room for manoeuvre.
However, he and the party’s finance spokesman Mark Dearey both criticised the policies for failing to achieve fairness or equity.
Mr Dearey said the budget unveiled last December was the first regressive budget in five years and had adversely affected poorer families because of cuts in allowances such as child benefit.
“It was not fair when they dipped into personal pensions [to fund its jobs plan]. It was not fair that the poor were the hardest hit,” said Mr Ryan.
He directed his criticism on what he called failures to introduce any real stimulus measures.
“The Labour Party seems to have lost its way. They have forgotten everything that John Maynard Keynes had to say. They run for cover every time they are asked a hard question.”
Mr Dearey said it already looked like the Government was going to “flunk” the issue of household charges.
“They have given no thought to how it will be implemented. It is a massive opportunity to have a fair site valuation system that finally begins to deal with property tax,” he said.
The party’s enterprise spokeswoman Marianne Butler said the Government was stuck in an older analogue world and had not embraced new technological opportunities such as the digital content services centre and the Green IFSC.
Enterprise spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said the cuts in public service numbers had been made across the board rather than prioritising spending in some areas and changing work practices in other areas.
He did add, however, that he was delighted the new secretary general in the Department of Finance John Moran had run juice bars in the south of France for several years.
Asked how the party would approach the referendum on the fiscal compact, Mr Ryan said he personally favoured a Yes vote but the issue would have to be decided by the party at a special convention.
“We have yet to make a decision. The EU Commission, Germany and France have got it badly wrong in terms of economic strategy.
“Despite that, our country’s future is better within the euro and euro area than outside.
“Sinn Féin’s economic strategy would inevitably put us back into the sterling area with the UK,” Mr Ryan said.
