THE ECONOMY is likely to dominate the agenda in today’s electioneering, as Fianna Fáil, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Green Party all kick off their days discussing their economic platforms, with 22 days to go to polling day.
Labour this morning unveils its own ‘Plan for Stability and Growth’ to 2014 at its Dublin election HQ, while Sinn Féin will launch its own 10-point plan for creating new jobs today also.
Fianna Fáil’s headquarters, meanwhile, will host will hold a press conference on the state of the country’s economy given by finance minister Brian Lenihan, while former coalition partners the Green Party launches its full election campaign this morning too, with the theme of ‘renewing Ireland’.
All four of the events come after Fine Gael yesterday unveiled its ‘Five-Point Plan to Recovery’, which promises significant reform of the public, health and political sectors, but which has come under fire after proposing €3bn in new taxes over the coming years.
Launching the document, the party’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan confirmed that the party would find the remaining €9bn in budget adjustments required by the European Union through a 2:1 ratio of spending cuts and tax increases.
That ratio is broadly similar to that outlined by Fianna Fáil’s Four Year Plan for economic recovery, published in November – a plan that Fine Gael rubbished at the time, when it outlined its own ratio of 3:1 in spending cuts and tax hikes.
The Irish Times says Noonan denied suggestions that Fine Gael was converging with Labour on its economic plans, insisting that the latter party would seek a 50-50 combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
The shift in its plans for recouping the €9bn needed had become about because of the manner in which the government had enacted the Budget for 2011, he said.
The Irish Examiner adds that Fine Gael remained committed to returning Ireland’s Budget overspend to within EU limits – to within 3 per cent of the country’s economic output – by 2014, although Brussels has extended that deadline by a further year.
Today’s activity comes on the back of another opinion poll projecting a massive Fine Gael election victory, with the Irish Times’ Ipsos/MRBI poll showing the party on 33 per cent, while Labour stood at 24 per cent and Fianna Fáil 15 per cent.
Sinn Féin’s support stands at twelve per cent, the Greens’ is down to a single percentage point, while independents and others command the remaining 15 per cent.
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