FG National Conference: Battle lines drawn as Kenny on defensive
The battle lines of the looming general election were drawn by Taoiseach Enda Kenny as he attempted to portray Fianna Fáil as hopeless on the economy and Sinn Féin as reckless with it.
Mr Kenny used his key note address to the Fine Gael convention in Castlebar, Co Mayo, to warn that the recovery was fragile and the choice for the country at the next Dáil poll was between stability and chaos.
Clearly eyeing next year’s campaign, Mr Kenny promised lower taxes without a return to boom and bust politics.
“The era of new taxes and charges is over,” said Mr Kenny. “The 2015 Budget was the first in seven years to give people a modest increase in their take-home pay.
“My commitment to you is that tax cuts to reward hard work and enterprise will continue in the next budget and in future budgets — if the people return Fine Gael to office.
“We are never going back. My commitment as your Taoiseach and as leader of this party is that Ireland must never go back to the culture and practices of speculation, lack of oversight, wanton waste of public money and blatant disregard to our international reputation.”
Mr Kenny said Fianna Fáil had wrecked the economy in the past and Sinn Féin would be reckless with it in the future.
Insisting he wanted the Coalition to run its full term until the spring of 2016, Mr Kenny said voters would have a choice between “stable and coherent government; or chaos and instability”.
“A clear choice between moving forward, or risking the country’s progress to those who wrecked it in the past, or to those whose policies would wreck our future,” he told delegates.
“I don’t want Ireland dragged back to the failures of the past, or for the country’s progress to be ruined by those who are intent on blowing a huge hole in our recovering national finances.
“Populist promises to reverse every tough decision are nothing but empty rhetoric, irresponsible leadership and bad politics. They are not the solution to Ireland’s problems.”
The Taoiseach said that, as well as achieving full employment by 2018, he wanted to ensure that the next year, as the anniversary of the Easter Rising, would see a reversal in mass emigration.
“I believe, that after seven years of emigration, 2016 will be the year when the number of our people coming home, will be greater than the numbers who leave,” Mr Kenny told delegates.
He said the Government had taken many difficult decisions which other administrations had been too afraid to tackle, such as dealing with X case legislation and the plight of Magdalene Laundries women.
The Taoiseach said social protection reform was needed to encourage people back to work.
“Because we believe that work, not welfare, is the route out of poverty,” he said. “Next week, the new Low Pay Commission begins its work. In the next Budget we plan to bring to 500,000 — the number of workers who are exempt from paying the Universal Social Charge — or a quarter of the workforce.”
Speaking before the address, Mr Kenny strongly praised the performance of Finance Minister Michael Noonan, and said he had been kept fully informed about his health issues.
The Taoiseach said Mr Noonan was “making in respect of his health” following an eye procedure and recent cancer scare.
“He informed me in the very beginning of the difficulty he was having before his first operation and he informed me in respect of his current recovery from an eye procedure,” Mr Kenny said.
Reclaiming tricolour ‘key’ to 1916 centenary
Reclaiming the flag from extremists will be a key component of the anniversary events marking the 1916 uprising, Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys said.
She said the tricolour had been used by some groups for the wrong reasons and now needed to be restored to its unifying role.
Ms Humphreys said the three colours on the flag had a special meaning in Irish history.
“Some people have used our flag to portray a different message,” Ms Humphreys told a meeting at the Fine Gael conference in Castlebar, Mayo. “We need to reclaim our flag and we can do that through our schools and children.”
Under fire for her handling of the centenary celebrations, which critics have accused of being too low-key and not inclusive enough of the relatives of the people who fought in 1916, Ms Humphreys tried to broaden out the appeal of the planned events.
She said the families of those involved in the Easter Rising will be at the centre of next year’s centenary commemorations.
Ms Humphreys, who was strongly criticised following her appointment to the position of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister because her Irish is poor, said she wanted the centenary to act as an encouragement for people such as herself to immerse themselves in the language again.
“Why not make 2016 the year of the Irish language?” Ms Humphreys said.
Outlining the plans for the anniversary, Ms Humphreys said a number of State events would be held around Easter weekend next year, which would include a military parade outside the GPO on O’Connell St, Dublin, on Easter Sunday.
The actual date of the rising in April would also be marked by separate events, Ms Humphreys said.
One Fine Gael conference delegate expressed concern that the centenary could celebrate violence.
While Senator Maurice Cummins, the leader of the upper house, stressed the central role of the defence forces in the celebrations.
“Oghlaigh na hÉireann is the only Oghlaigh na hÉireann in the country and I am very proud they will have a prominent role in the commemorations,” Mr Cummins said.
A €22m programme of capital projects will also feature in marking the anniversary of the uprising.
The GPO is to get a new interpretive centre, while Kilmainham jail will have a new visitor centre, and there will be an upgrading of facilities at the Military Archives, a Tenement Museum on Henrietta St, the renovation of Richmond Barracks, Dublin, as a modern heritage site and visitor centre, the renovation of the Kevin Barry Rooms at the National Concert Hall and the development of a cultural centre at Teach an Phiarsaigh in Rosmuc.
Sinn Féin has strongly criticised the plans for marking the rising, saying they lack ambition and resources.
Marriage equality ‘part of building a just republic’
Extending marriage rights to same-sex couples will not have a damaging impact on existing unions between a man and a woman, the children’s minister has told the Fine Gael conference.
James Reilly, who was speaking at a private meeting of delegates, said that marriage equality was something Fine Gael needed to fully back in the May 22 referendum.
“Extending a right does not dilute a right,” he said, according to sources. He said the move was part of building a just society and bringing about a “just republic”.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald heard delegates express fears that a no vote in the poll could do major reputational as damage to the country abroad, and could see an exodus of gay people from the country.
After appearing to be opposed to extending civil marriage rights to same-sex couples while in opposition, Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to say for a number of years whether he backed marriage equality or not, but came out in favour of the change after it was overwhelmingly endorsed by the constitutional convention.
Since then, he has strongly supported the reform, linking the issue in his address to the Fine Gael national conference to the remembrance of the 1916 Rising.
“In May, the people of Ireland will vote in a referendum on marriage equality,” said Mr Kenny. “The issue is clear: Whether the State will allow same-sex couples the right to civil marriage. As we approach the centenary of the rising, a yes vote would, I believe, send out a powerful signal internationally that Ireland has evolved into a fair, compassionate and tolerant nation. I believe that this is the right thing to do. I, and the Fine Gael Party strongly support a yes vote.
“And therefore I say to all same-sex couples in our country. This is about you, it’s about your right to say two small words, made up of three simple letters — I do.
“For you, in your lives together, may they become your letters of freedom.”
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