Sinn Féin told ‘to pull on green jersey’

THE Tánaiste has urged Sinn Féin to “pull on the green jersey” and help the Government in its negotiations with the troika.

Eamon Gilmore was reacting in the Dáil yesterday to Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald, who criticised the Government for adhering to the bailout.

She said the troika would place a “big gold star on the Government’s copybook” for its “ongoing assault on the livelihoods of low and middle-income earners”.

Mr Gilmore insisted the Government was making “real progress” in difficult times and urged Sinn Féin to be more supportive.

Despite the negative connotations of the phrase, he said it would be helpful if the party “put on the green jersey” and assisted the Government in its talks with the troika.

The phrase is associated with the banking collapse, amid allegations that banks were encouraged to follow a “green jersey agenda” by helping each other rather than allowing the scale of problems in the institutions to be exposed.

Ms McDonald said it was “utterly perverse” for the Tánaiste to ask people to pull on the green jersey “in order to bring about cutbacks in our schools and to the health system”.

Mr Gilmore said nobody in the Government was enthusiastic about cutting public services, “but we are in an economic and financial hole”.

“This Government is taking the country to recovery and we are making progress on that,” he said.

“Even in difficult times, we have been able to take 330,000 people out of the universal social charge net introduced by the previous government.

“Some 1.8 million workers will not pay additional income tax in 2012 as against what they paid in 2011. The basic rates for one million people in receipt of social welfare payments have not been reduced in 2012 as against 2011.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin said it was ready to use legal action to force the Government to hold a referendum on EU budgetary rules.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the Government wanted to sign up to the new EU treaty through legislation rather than returning to the days of “cultural wars” over referenda.

Sinn Féin said it would campaign for a vote over whether Ireland should agree to the stricter EU rules. Party leader Gerry Adams said: “It is an austerity treaty. It is bad politics and bad economies. If the Government dodges that [a vote] and we think they are trying to dodge it... we’d take legal advice.”