‘We haven’t done all we said we would’

THE Government has not done everything it promised to do in its first 100 days, Taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted.

“We actually haven’t done everything that we said we would do in the first 100 days,” he acknowledged.

“(But) the truth of the first 100 days is as follows. As we start to reclaim our financial independence, and restore morale and confidence across our country, we have made a decisive step on the road to recovery.”

His comments were echoed by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, who said: “We have started to rebuild our broken economy.”

At a press conference in Government Buildings, Mr Kenny said the Government had acted swiftly to restructure and recapitalise the banks and had announced a Jobs Initiative as well as an internship programme “whose effects will be seen shortly”.

The Government would launch a loan-guarantee scheme for small businesses in the autumn and announce “additional measures to help families drowning in mortgage debt”, although he did not indicate what these may be.

On the bailout, he said the Government had “started to fulfil our promise” to improve the terms by getting permission for the Jobs Initiative, preventing a firesale of assets and reversing the cut in the minimum wage.

He failed to mention that the Government had failed to meet its promise to burn senior bank bondholders.

The Government has accepted that senior bondholders in AIB and Bank of Ireland cannot be touched.

And while Finance Minister Michael Noonan indicated earlier this week that he would make another effort to burn some senior bondholders in Anglo and Irish Nationwide, he acknowledged he would first need the permission of the ECB.

The Government has thus far also failed to secure a cut in the interest rates charged on the bailout loans.

But Mr Kenny signalled yesterday that the Government had not given up on this issue.

He said Ireland was meeting its obligations under the bailout and EU leaders should now play ball and agree to an interest rate cut.

Germany and France have so far blocked a rate cut, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy particularly vociferous in demanding an increase in Ireland’s corporate tax rate as a quid pro quo.

Mr Kenny reiterated yesterday that the corporation tax rate was off the table.

And he urged Mr Sarkozy and others to put domestic political concerns aside and grant Ireland the rate cut.

“Ireland is making huge sacrifices to help solve the eurozone crisis,” Mr Kenny said.

“If we can grow out of this crisis, we can pay our way.”

Mr Kenny also urged European leaders to put aside their “domestic political agendas” to support countries who are “working towards recovery”.

He warned of future hardship, saying that “come autumn, we’ll complete a comprehensive review of expenditure for the next three years”, adding that we must “do more with less” and prepare for “yet more difficult decisions”.

But he said Ireland could not cut its way out of trouble, and for that reason, the Government would not hike income taxes in the budget.

The assurance came a week after Mr Noonan refused to rule income tax hikes in or out of the budget. Mr Kenny said Mr Noonan had merely “adhered strictly” to a long-standing principle “not to comment on what might or might not be” in any particular budget.

Similarly, Mr Gilmore pledged that the programme’s commitment to maintain social welfare rates remained, in an effort to provide certainty for people.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the country’s first 100 days were underwhelming and were more about optics than substance.

“Fundamentally on the key big issues the Government has not been in a position to deliver upon some of the wilder assertions and claims that they made in advance of the election and during the election campaign itself,” Mr Martin said.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the first 100 days were peppered with U-turns, and he criticised the Coalition for continuing with the EU/IMF bailout.

“Fine Gael and Labour have adopted almost the entire economic policy of the failed and rejected Fianna Fáil-Green government,” Mr Adams said.

“They have failed to protect the most vulnerable, cut essential services and been at the beck and call of the EU/IMF.”