Cowen: I stopped economy overheating

FRAUGHT exchanges on the policies which fuelled the property boom, followed by a rearguard action by the Government, dominated yesterday’s Dáil debate on its handling of the economy.

The most fractious issue was the claim by Taoiseach Brian Cowen that while he was finance minister, he helped keep the economy from overheating. This was vigorously opposed by the leaders of the other parties.

Mr Cowen opened the debate on the International Monetary Fund’s report on Ireland with the claim he fought off pro-construction lobbying and calls to abolish stamp duty.

He said as finance minister he moved to abolish property-related tax breaks.

“Despite a concerted attempt in the media and on opposition benches, I refused to get rid of stamp duty — the largest transactions tax on property in the EU. If we had heeded those calls to remove stamp duty, the brakes would have been off entirely and we would be in far greater trouble than we are now,” Mr Cowen said.

The Taoiseach’s attack provoked an angry reaction from the opposition.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it amounted to a “church-gate party political speech”.

“The Taoiseach said the opposition wanted to get rid of stamp duty. That is not the case. The Labour Party and, I know Fine Gael, wanted to reform stamp duty.

“The person who wanted to get rid of stamp duty was the then tánaiste Michael McDowell in September, 2006. I still get builders tell me the last day they sold a unit they were building was the day before Mr McDowell announced that there would be an abolition of stamp duty,” he said.

Similarly, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny reminded the Taoiseach the opposition had not called for the stamp duty changes which took place.

“What is eating deeply in to the Taoiseach is the fact that he sat in Merrion Street [the Department of Finance] and introduced four budgets in the full knowledge of spending trends that was being followed by the then Government and its predecessors.”

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Arthur Morgan said the economic collapse was created by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats but the Green Party was now equally culpable.

However, Green Party leader John Gormley said the way out of the recession was through environmentally friendly technologies and his party had never been in the pocket of builders.

The debate, unusually scheduled to take place late on a Friday, continued throughout the evening with speeches varying from hospital care to the school building programme.

Fine Gael’s Frank Feighan said it was wrong it believe the IMF report had endorsed the Government’s position.

He said despite the need for collective responsibility, it was wrong for the Government to “blame the people who followed you.”