Fianna Fáil hit out at SF spending plans

Sinn Féin was today accused by a Government minister of threatening to create a ghetto economy ahead of the next General Election.

Fianna Fáil Communications and Marine Minister Noel Dempsey went on the offensive against Gerry Adams and his party, repeating claims by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that Sinn Féin’s economic policies would be disastrous for the country.

The Meath TD argued: “Sinn Féin is committed to excessive tax and spending.

“Their policies would reverse all the gains of the past decade.

“Indeed, for their programme to be implemented, we would probably have to hike borrowing or spending by far more than Sinn Féin would admit.”

“Gerry Adams has called for social spending to be doubled. This is a fundamentally misguided objective.

“For many reasons – such as low unemployment and our young population – we have no cause to increase social spending to such a high level.

“To do so would require an extra €13bn in expenditure a year. This would require a serious increase in taxation and there is no doubt that the income tax of ordinary workers would have to increase dramatically.”

At a selection convention confirming Joe Reilly would run in Meath West at the next election, Mr Adams last night accused other parties of selling the electorate a pup in 2002.

The West Belfast MP told party activists: “There was little or no discussion about how to resolve problems in key services such as health and education, instead all that was discussed were costings and balance sheets.

“And it is clear that the approach to the next election will be no different, except that this time the focus will be on Sinn Féin.

“Sometime over the next 18 months the electorate will choose a new government.

“I want to challenge the Taoiseach and the other party leaders to stop hiding behind sham politics and to engage in a real debate about the problems facing people the length and breadth of the country.

“The next election needs to be fought in terms of ideas and the type of country we want to live in – not in terms of accountants’ balance sheets.”

Mr Adams said his party would put equality at the heart of government policy, pressing for an end to a two tier health system and addressing the problem of 48,00 families on housing waiting lists.

The Sinn Féin president said: “Given the massive resources at the disposal of the state, the government is in a position to provide a proper health service, sufficient housing and a decent education system.

“The reason this is not happening is because the Government’s focus is not on building public services but on privatising public services.

“There is also an additional problem of gross inefficiency across government departments.

“We believe that investing in public services should be the number one priority for any incoming government.”

Mr Adams also criticised the tax system claiming it currently favoured the wealthiest in society.

He argued: “There is a lie out there that we are a low tax economy. Yes, while some personal taxation rates may be low in comparison to other states the reality is that there is massive and increasing indirect taxation.

“This way of raising tax disproportionately impacts most on those least able to afford it. This is inequitable and unjust.”

Mr Adams said Sinn Féin wanted the end of all tax exemptions except where the economic and social value outweighs the cost to the exchequer and the introduction of legislative changes to prevent wealthy individuals from declaring they are non-resident for tax purposes.

However Mr Dempsey countered if Sinn Fein got to hike taxes on capital and corporations, it would result in a drain away of investment from the country.

He continued: “They will be left with no alternative but to tax incomes, but incomes will have plummeted. Why? Because of the flight of capital and corporations, there will be less investment and less jobs.

“So instead of exempting minimum wage earners from the tax net, we would probably have to tax them on at least half their earnings.”

He accused Sinn Féin of ghetto economics.

The Fianna Fáil minister warned: “The country would be bankrupt. The spectre of emigration would return.

“It would really be a national nightmare.’

“Fianna Fáil will never let such policies be implemented.”