We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
FINE GAEL HAS PROPOSED an increase in the minimum wage, dismantling the HSE, and an action plan for housing in a wide-ranging document aimed at governing in partnership with independent TDs.
After more than 50 hours of talks with 15 independent deputies at Government Buildings over the past two weeks, the party has circulated a draft foundation document for “a new partnership government”.
The draft will be considered by independent TDs before they meet again with Fine Gael in the morning. It is also being discussed by the Fine Gael parliamentary party tonight.
It comes as Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the independent TDs this evening that he plans to meet with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin tomorrow.
This will come after what’s expected to be a stalemate when the Dáil tries to elect a Taoiseach.
Michael Healy-Rae / TwitterI welcome the fact that the Taoiseach has confirmed that he will meet with Deputy Micheal Martin leader of Fianna Fail tomorrow.
— Michael Healy-Rae (@MHealyRae) April 5, 2016
Despite the extensive negotiations, independent TDs have indicated they will not back Kenny as he attempts to win the vote for Taoiseach tomorrow.
Many have repeatedly stated that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil need to engage in negotiations on the formation of government – something which has so far failed to happen – bar one phone call last week.
What’s in this document?
The 123-page document produced by Fine Gael covers 16 separate areas with extensive sections on housing, health, rural affairs, education, disabilities and political reform.
It makes no reference to the situation surrounding Irish Water and water charges.
The only mention of the utility is in the context of a commitment to protecting the €42 billion capital investment plan, which includes a €5.5 billion plan set out by Irish Water to upgrade the “dilapidated national water infrastructure”.
The document proposes that the Eighth Amendment be considered by a Citizens’ Assembly which could also examine introducing fixed-term parliaments.
Referendums on ‘a woman’s life within the home’, blasphemy, the Universal Patent Court and giving a constitutional role the Ceann Comhairle are also proposed.
A pledge to expand broadband coverage to 85% of the population by 2018 and 100% by 2020 is also contained in the document.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterShane Ross: We’re absolutely nowhere near a deal #sixone
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) April 5, 2016
The housing crisis
According to the document, the new government will appoint a cabinet minister for housing to provide “political leadership on resolving the housing crisis”.
Together with an Oireachtas housing committee, they will draft a new ‘action plan for housing’ to tackle the crisis.
The new government would accelerate the delivery of the social housing strategy with 18,000 additional housing units by the end of 2017 and 17,000 additional housing units by the end of 2020.
Among other measures proposed include linking funding for local authorities to their return of vacant social housing units and the examination of tax relief proposals for landlords who deliver a greater supply of private rental accommodation.
The government pledges to deliver 500 rapid delivery housing units to “end the use of unstable long-term emergency accommodation, such as hotels and B&Bs, for homeless families”.
Public spending, taxes and jobs
Alan Farrell TD / TwitterThis should make for interesting reading. #Dail pic.twitter.com/mYyBGvlhDm
— Alan Farrell (@AlanFarrell) April 5, 2016
The new government would also spend an additional €6.75 billion to deliver public services by 2021. There are promises to provide “sustainable increases” in public pay and pensions and improve welfare payments for the elderly, disabled, sick and carers.
It pledges to continue reductions in personal tax rate and notes the “continued phasing out of the USC”, as well as seek support to increase the minimum wage to €10.50 per hour over the next five years.
There is a promise to reduce the rate of unemployment to 6% by creating 200,000 extra jobs by 2020, including 135,000 outside of Dublin. This will also facilitate the return of 70,000 emigrants, the document states.
Health and education.
The document pledges to continue the process of “dismantling the HSE” and evolving it into a Health Commission, while at the same time reforming it into “a more efficient, transparent health service for parents and staff”. Other measures include:
On education, the new government would introduce a second free pre-school year and raise the school starting age to five, reduce the pupil teacher ratio in junior and senior infants and increase the mandatory school leaving age to 17.
No small school would be closed against parents’ wishes, the document claims.
Justice, rural affairs, women and judges
On justice issues, there is a pledge to increase garda numbers to 14,000, increase numbers in Garda reserve and support investment in CCTV at key locations along the road network and in urban centres.
Gavan Reilly / TwitterFG policy doc: Fast-track legislation to stricter bail terms and use of curfews, and for electronic tagging of those on bail w Garda request
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 5, 2016
Government discretion to appoint judges outside of those recommended by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board would be scrapped.
The new government would create a department of rural affairs with a cabinet minister to head that department.
The document also contains a section on ‘empowering women’.
Under these plans, large companies would be required to carry out wage surveys, the Defence Forces would be tasked with increasing the number of females by 50% and there is also a pledge to increase the number of women on state boards to 40%.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Please, please, please no more Kenny. Anything, anything else would be preferable. Anything. A piece of driftwood, an old binliner, a discarded piece of toast, a rusty bicycle wheel. Anything. Please, somebody privatise him. Take him over, take him away.
He should return to the clutches of he who shall not be named for assimilation.
One thousand red thumbs Andrew. Best comment on the subject of Mr Kenny.
Fine Gael lost the last election, it’s about time that the delusional clowns copped themselves on.The Irish people don’t need these self serving ,quango loving ,crony ridden merchants of misery looking after their friends at the expense of the masses.
Just out of curiosity, can you tell me who did win the election?
“democracy”
I think if there is another election FG will do even worse. I would not change my vote anyway.
Anyone supporting fg government will be punished by the electorate.
I’ll be taking note of any independent in my area that supports FG and Irish water. Never to be voted for by this house again
These draft proposals have no substance. The Department of Finance has already said it won’t be possible to reduce VAT on new builds as it will take too much from the exchequer. Meanwhile the proposal on climate change is to improve flood defences… hahaha. That’s like buying fire extinguishers when the house is already on fire. Laughable stuff from FG
They’ll give us a referendum on “women in the home” wording in the constitution but not on the 8th amendment that affects women and couples every day. Pathetic.
They’ll have plenty of money after dismantling the HSE.
Im no fan of the HSE as a bloated State body, but the alternative of the country without it is frightening.
Fine Gaels method is always to abolish something and leave something else half-assed in its wake.
Case in Point: Replacing local water authorities with Veolia Water Services – cloked in secrecy under the guise of that useless quango that is [was] Irish Water
Privatisation by stealth
FG will just try to get the foot back in the door then backtrack on any proposals….it’s how they roll.
I wonder who’ll hover up most of the €5.5 billion to be spent upgrading the infrastructure ? Mr FG himself no doubt.
Why will FG not commit to holding a referendum to ensure IW or the supply of water cannot be privatised or FF for that matter
We’ve been here with Enda’s promises before. And how much will it cost us in the End for this silly beggars. Call another election and be done with it
Fine Gael /Labour had a collective seat count of 113 in 2011 (76/37) and now this time
Fine Gael /Labour have a collective seat count of 57 (50/7) that is a whopping loss of 56, they were collectively told to forget about leading the country, no matter how Fine Gael spin it.
Fianna Fáil, even though they made made a lot of ground (mostly based on Irish Water promises), still had their second worst election in history.
With Sinn Féin making decent progress in the eye of a completely biased media storm and the march of Independents and small groups.
the table has been set for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to finally get into bed with each other and put an end to the charade of civil war politics Mathematically there is no alternative. A majority of people want this to happen.
One wrong move by either party will see them take a walloping, and they both know it, Old school Irish politics is slowly dying, the people have had enough of it, Irish Water will be the barometer on what happens next, woe betide Fiann Fáil if they get it wrong.
Nail on the head mother, broken promises no more.
Take note any party promising one thing and then changing their minds.
People will remember and vote accordingly
And then SF get in and what just raises taxes on the so called middle class and up.. Will just drive any educated people out of this country.
@ the destroyer, 1/2 million people left the country since the crash, do you think that they majority of them were uneducated? we need a different type of politics in this country. corruption is rife, if we want change then we need to action this at the ballot box. FG/FF/Lab is basically more of the same.
3.8% in the years of some of the worst austerity ever in this country and that’s all SF managed to increase their vote. People flocked back to FF before they’d vote for SF so that’ll tell you all you need to know.
@jane
Fianna Fáil
2007 – 77 seats
2011 – 20 seats
2016 – 44 seats
Fine Gael
2007 – 51 seats
2011 – 76 seats
2016 – 50 seats
Labour
2007 – 20 seats
2011 – 37 seats
2016 – 7 seats
Sinn Féin
2007 – 4 seats
2011 – 14 seats
2016 – 23 seats
after the FF meltdown for bankrupting the country, Fine Gael have returned to normal numbers, has lost ALL the gains it had made,
Fianna Fáil still haven`t recovered from it`s hay day yet, not by a long shot,
Labour have been decimated
The only party that is not brand spanking new, Sinn Féin have consistently gained over them all, Only one with ANY sort of upward movement at all ,
Hope that will tell you a bit more jane.
Omitting the 2011 elections as an electorate backlash,
Fiann Fáil are still negative 33 seats
Fine Gael are negative 1
Labour are negative 13 seats
Combined, the three established parties are still down a whopping 47 seats
Ols Irish Politics will die out further with each generation, and less mud will stick to Sinn Féin.
FF the party that everyone (except FF) blames for wrecking the country went up 7%. You can dress it up anyway you like but this was a disappointing election for SF. This was suppose to be their breakthrough election.
FG and FF need to end the flirting and get on with it.
For Sinn Fein to really make an impact in Irish politics they need to drop Adams. He was awful in the debates, and for most is tainted by his past. I’d imagine Mcdonald, or Doherty would have performed well against Kenny and Joan. Without Adams, Martin would’ve been starved of much of his ammunition and might have failed in to make the impact he subsequently did.
I think Donnely could make a good Taoiseach some day.
jane, Fianna Fáil are still down approximately 45-48% down from their 2007 numbers, they were always expected to get some back owing to the debacle of what was the last government,
FG and Labour basically threw their seats back at them , but they could still only manage the SECOND worst election in their history.
Take off the blinkers, stop being brainwashed by media concerning the older parties and look at the real figures of every party and the differences in them over the last few elections.
Old Irish way is dying faster than they expected, get ready for an onslaught of media spin in the next few days/weeks
Ah will you go away with your conspiracy theories nonsense. If anyone is blinkered it’s you. You can’t even countenance anything but success for SF. But that’s not what happened. The fact that FF are gaining ground again after their very recent past is staggering. The fact that you can’t see that is unsurprising.
Richard I think Pearse would be better than Mary Loo. Mary Loo has been very vocal in her defense of Adams and is tainted now by that. A true fresh start would mean Pearse or someone else but no one tied to their past.
As for FF and FG coalition I strongly disagree. There are a lot of people out there struggling and they can’t wait another 5 years for the help they need.
Call a new election now we know Edna and FG will hop into bed with anyone, they’ve lied in their election campaign
Dismantle the HSE what a laugh it’s a quango within a quango.
John Tierney is retiring from Irish Water just to come out of retirement later to head this new quango no doubt.
Good Early ,this is the system .Teachers ,Gardai and other public servants under fire in recession turned on new recruits so that they themselves could go on to enjoy their comforts ,guaranteed salaries ,pensions etc and now want the private sector to pay for this betrayed .Jack O’Connor is a joke .
How many promises were made in 2011, a new way of doing politics never happened because those who wrote it were laughing themselves silly thinking of the fools who would swallow it hook, line and sinker. an independent justice system and prison sentences for curropt councillors would be a start. it’s just another book of fiction written to steal an election and put a politicial dodo bird back in power. So his legency is secured in the history of the blue shirts.
the only promise guaranteed to be delivered is 2 more ministers and all the money to go with the jobs…….looking after themselves as usual
So while the Gravey Train is stopped at the station they are planning on adding another two seats. Yet another broken promise by Kenny – the man just can’t help himself. So much for his 2011 policy of reducing the number of ministers. Cowens government had 15 ministers while Enda Kennys had 14 and now he wants to replace the one he lost and add another.
Won’t be another election. FG and FF fear it. Wind of change is evident and if another election these 2 will do even worse. They know this…
Has Kenny done some dirty deal on water that he can’t go back onn something smells awful
Enda kenny needs to go….enough i say.
Enda Kenny is not wanted, send him back to Mayo before he damages the country even more.
So many “pledges” each worth about as much as the paper they are written on. Remember Enda’s pledge to being about a transparent government and a new way of governing? Never happened did it. Much like these pledges….
We need an ANOTHER election to sort this out…
Is there any thing about tackling corruption , anything about closing loop holes that allow the rich not pay tax, anything about being honest , open and transparent . anything about finding out where taxpayers money has been squandered. ….
Didn’t we have a minister in charge of housing?.. Alan Kelly .. How did that work out. .According to the document, the new government will appoint a cabinet minister for housing to provide “political leadership on resolving the housing crisis”….. According to the current minister… It’s the constitution that’s at fault…..
Add real Accountability Measures to Transparency, and legislate for real consequences and I’m with ya LittleOne! A standalone Civil/Public Service Internal Affairs style department, carrying out in depth root and branch investigations of state departments and semi states, and state employee reviews on an annual basis with the possibility of wage reductions or employment termination where they’re found to be incapable of doing their job to an appropriate level.
Would like to see full document. .. no details on Suicide Reduction Early intervention and preventative services Mental Health Services Reform Anyone got link to full document?
FG certainly did not win the election !
Rather, the country has spoken and FG and by extension KENNY have been roundly rejected so he is totally out of the running as far as leader is concerned . I’m amazed he is being allowed to tout FG fir a coalition as it sends out the wrong signal.
I repeat, I feel it’s now time for a grand rainbow coalition with all parties receiving cabinet posts pro rats to their showing in the election .
It would stop all the posturing and force the members of government to genuinely coalesce in an effort to bring the country right out I recession and austerity and then normal hostilities could resume at the end of the rainbow parliament . That way real consensus politics would emerge with no widely divergent policies from any party
But who’d get the blame for stuff?
Oh, how very dare you speak such sense Mr. Kelly. That just is not how it’s done in these here parts.
Both FG and FF desperately want to be in power on their own calling the shots FG can’t do it without FF, FF don’t want to power share as it gives SF majority opposition speaking time in the Dail…..it really needs to be a sweet deal for FF to give up opposition rights…..Rock and a hard place …..I see no movement and FF taking their chances with another election to see if they can topple FG with a majority…..I predict it will fail and SF and Independents will get even more of the votes…..and a Saturday election to squeeze for voters out…….just my thoughts.
What about fianna fail? one in five seem to have forgotten how they ruined the country But we’re not all dev daft.
Can they just come up with a new plan like this? I assume that the people who voted FG did so on the basis of what they said they were going to deliver, pre election. But now they have a different set of plans drafted ? Surely they don’t have a mandate for that? How can that even be legal? Serious question.
Can’t form a government on the back of a protest vote… I see another election coming and you can betcha FG and FF will get more seats.
have your say