FG to oppose cabinet’s financial solutions

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny has warned Taoiseach Brian Cowen he will stand defiantly against the solutions currently proposed to deal with the financial crisis.

At a special front bench meeting yesterday the party decided not to offer the Government support in the national interest. Mr Kenny said this was because he had no faith in Mr Cowen’s ability to steer the country out of recession.

He said Fine Gael would oppose pay cuts to any public servant earning less than €100,000 a year.

And it will fight the €1.5 billion injection into Anglo Irish Bank. Instead Fine Gael will demand the bank’s complete shutdown by 2016.

During the strategy meeting held at Carlton House, Maynooth, Mr Kenny said it would not support the recapitalisation of Anglo.

“We believe that the €1.5bn being put up by the Government... could be put to better use. Every observer of Anglo Irish has lost faith in the credibility of the bank.

“I think Anglo should be acquired at a nominal sum. A proper management team should be put in and it [should be] wound down in an orderly fashion within five to seven years,” he said.

Mr Kenny said he also wanted the suggested pay freeze for public sector workers extended until 2010.

However, he did not support the 5%-10% pay cuts the Government is reported to be seeking from the civil service.

He said for anybody earning less than €100,000, almost three times the average industrial wage, their salaries should be kept intact. He did not offer a strategy for recovering the €2bn needed to fill a hole in the national budget.

Mr Kenny said the figure of €100,000 was decided on because it represented the higher pay grade in the civil service.

The frontbenchers were brought to the luxurious Maynooth hotel for the meeting before the Dáil returns next week. Mr Kenny said they picked the venue because the party was offered a “very good rate”.

And he dismissed the importance of his personal rating in successive opinion polls. These have revealed growing support for Fine Gael but voters’ refusal to warm to him as a leader.

Mr Kenny said it was not something the front bench spoke about.

“My job is to build a team around me here and give an understanding that this party is in a position where it has worked hard, where is has put together its own initiatives in a competent and trustworthy fashion.... it is not just about Enda Kenny it is about the Fine Gael team,” he said.

Mr Kenny made his statement while surrounded by his leading party spokesmen. He said the group was prepared to go to the people if a snap election was called in 2009 because the apparatus was already in place for the local and European campaigns.

During the briefing Alan Shatter stood at Mr Kenny’s right shoulder in a show of solidarity after Sinn Féin attacked the children’s spokesman’s for his stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.