Enda Kenny’s silence akin to ‘North Korea’

Fianna Fáil yesterday said they would not under any circumstance take part in, or support, a Fine Gael Government, insisting: “We want Enda Kenny out of office.”

The party accused the Taoiseach and Fine Gael of acting like the government of North Korea by strictly limiting the questions allowed to be put to Mr Kenny at his first press conference of the general election campaign.

The senior opposition party described the move by senior Fine Gael figures as a “sad state of affairs”.

Michael McGrath, the Cork South Central TD and finance spokesman, accused Mr Kenny of “ducking and diving” and of sending Health Minister Leo Varadkar out to do his dirty work on RTÉ’s Six One News.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when the Taoiseach of the day conducts his first press conference with a limit of two questions to be put from the floor,” Mr McGrath told reporters at a press event in Dublin.

“This isn’t North Korea, this is a democratic state and you, as members of the media, are entitled to put as many questions as you want, as far as I’m concerned, to all of the political leaders going before the country in this election.

“And for the Taoiseach also to skip the first real interview on the Six One last night — they sent Leo Varadkar out to do his dirty work — is not the way to go and it is not a sustainable basis for them to conduct a three-week campaign.”

Mr McGrath says Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s numbers published in Fine Gael’s economic plan are “back-of-the- envelope stuff” and “simply don’t add up”.

He said that the figures given by the Department of Finance and the Fiscal Advisory Council in terms of available money are vastly different. He said all of the different figures being thrown out in relation to the so-called ‘fiscal space’ are based on certain economic assumptions.

“As a country, we are now entering in a vital election campaign with a €5.4bn difference between the Fiscal Advisory Council’s estimate of fiscal space available to the next government and the Department of Finance’s estimate,” Mr McGrath told reporters.

“This Government has brought the whole issue of broken promises to a new level.”

Mr McGrath said if the economic projections end up being wrong, Fianna Fáil will prioritise vital public services.

Fianna Fáil intends to achieve a 60:40 split in terms of spending and tax cuts, he said.

Mr McGrath also said that, on the basis of a total fiscal space of about €12bn, Fianna Fáil will promise a €9.5bn package and a remaining €2.5bn being used to pay off the country’s debt.

Fianna Fáil would also set up a separate ‘rainy day fund’ that could only be accessed in the event of an economic downturn.

Mr McGrath described Fine Gael’s proposed rainy day fund as a “slush fund”.

He called for a reconciliation on the figures to bring certainty on the matter.

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