Pressure on Rainbow parties over stamp duty
At their first joint press conference of the campaign, Fine Gael (FG) and Labour leaders Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte last night indicated their initiative would be implemented on day one if they took power, but refused to confirm this.
“Maybe myself and Pat will travel back from the Áras together to deal with it,” Mr Kenny said.
The FG leader also evaded questions on whether he supported the pay and working claims being put forward by nurses in their dispute with the Health Service Executive.
He refused to answer the question directly, merely stating that the Government needed to address their concerns with “imagination”.
“In order to change the health service, our case is that the people have to change the Government,” he said.
The Rainbow parties have said their abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers on the first €450,000 of the purchase price would be introduced as a “priority”.
Labour had wanted the initiative brought in within the first year of a new Government while FG preferred to do it over three budgets.
The compromise move to give it “priority” status was seen as a victory for Labour when it was announced last month.
Fianna Fáil (FF) has accused the Rainbow parties of disturbing the housing market but not saying when they would reform the property tax.
FF has pledged to abolish stamp duty for first- time buyers, backdated to April 30, after months of seemingly opposing reform.
Mr Rabbitte and Mr Kenny also refused to be drawn further into the controversy surrounding payments in the mid-1990s to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s then-partner, Celia Larkin.
Asked if he feared the in-depth coverage of the matter would induce public sympathy for the Taoiseach, Mr Rabbitte said: “This is a tough business.”
Mr Kenny insisted voters faced a real choice in this election.
“That choice will be both stark and simple. But it will also be profoundly significant. Because the choice that people face is whether to continue with a Government that will limp along with no agreed programme and a proven inability to deliver on their own commitments,” he said.
