Little to seduce voters as FF ditches auction politics

FIANNA FÁIL pre-election manifestos have always been full of razzmatazz, laden with plum promises and financial inducements to voters.

Jack Lynch’s infamous “giveaway manifesto” of 1977 rewarded his party with the biggest Dáil majority of any party in the history of the state with 84 seats. But it has gone down as partly leading to the devastating fiscal crisis of the 1980s.

And as recently as 2007, the party’s manifesto was full of headline grabbing pledges to divert attention away from the controversy surrounding the personal finances of the then leader, Bertie Ahern.

Among them was the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers, tax cuts of €4.2 billion, big rises in the state pension and — best of all — to “virtually eliminate” national debt.

Given how all that worked out for them, it was not surprising that yesterday’s launch of the Fianna Fáil election manifesto offered little to seduce the electorate.

And so there was not a single mention of health care. There was not a single mention of schools. There was not a single mention of extra resources to tackle crime, improve hospital services or changes people feel are needed in their homes or communities.

“There are no new spending commitments. There are no gimmicks,” Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin proclaimed yesterday.

In a way, it took a leaf straight out of the pre-election manifesto of the British Labour Party last year, which said on the first page that there was “no big new spending commitments”.

Like the Labour Party who said it was offering a “realistic road to recovery” instead of irresponsible spending promises, Mr Martin said Fianna Fáil was offering a “clear focus on how we can achieve a lasting recovery.”

And just as the Labour manifesto focused on political reform, Fianna Fáil found that sprucing up the Dáil and improving how government works were the only populist pledges they could afford when there was no cash left to play auction politics.

The difference between the manifestos is that while Labour’s tried to show it would do things different if re-elected to Government, Fianna Fáil’s manifesto offered no new ideas to show that attempts to reorientate the party are genuine.

“We have put aside the old approach of developing a long list of proposals on every issue and for every interest group,” Mr Martin said.

The problem with this approach is that a political manifesto is by definition supposed to do just that. It’s a declaration of its intentions, its policies and a principles. Its Latin origin means making clear.

But Fianna Fáil has failed to indicate any new direction for the party by keeping its manifesto to three areas: (1) Repairing the economy through the four-year plan, which we already know about; (2) job creation through a list of policies which the Government had already pledged in various policy documents and (3) suggestions on political reform so obviously designed by a party with opposition, not leadership, in mind.

Job creation is one policy area where voters want to see what each party is doing. Fianna Fáil’s manifesto is either vague, promising to “aid businesses” or “create training opportunities”, or it is based on what has already been promised by the outgoing Government, to “complete the Metro North project”, or that “Science Foundation Ireland will maintain 29 world-class research centres in 2011”.

For a party trying to go in a new direction, there is nothing new on offer here, or on their pledge to stick with the four-year plan for economic recovery.

Public fury over what politics has delivered in recent years meant all parties felt obliged to devise some proposals to change the way politics is conducted.

THE problem is not just that Fianna Fáil is responsible for the old ways and has failed to implement any of these policies in its 14 years in Government, but that even now it does not seem to be practicing what it preaches.

For example, the manifesto contains plans to create more gender balance in the Dáil through a list system. But this has little credibility coming from a party that has chosen to field just 11 women candidates out of 74 on its ticket in the current campaign.

And the promise to “review the membership of all state boards” is not just hypocritical because in the past Mr Martin’s department appointed Celia Larkin — former partner of Bertie Ahern to a state board — but because just weeks ago Fianna Fáil were stuffing such state boards with supporters.

The manifesto is short of ideas in policies areas to show Fianna Fáil can reinvent and reorientate itself and embark on a new beginning.

The manifesto might mark the end of auction politics for Fianna Fáil. But their inability to come up with anything tempting in the absence of cash, leaves you wondering what they stand for.