Fine Gael trying to win voters’ hearts with Valentine's Day manifesto

As he took to the stage to present his party’s €4.1bn manifesto, Fine Gael’s director of elections Brian Hayes attempted to win back voters’ wandering hearts. Noting the February 14 date, the MEP held up the 136-page document before telling the waiting audience of journalists and party colleagues: “Happy Valentine’s Day, I hope your dreams come through.”

Mood music set, the attempt to convince voters to give the rocky relationship between Fine Gael-Labour another chance and to ignore the rival suitors whispering sweet nothings in their ears was clear in every move Mr Hayes, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and the party’s ministers made over the following hour.

However, Fine Gael’s problem is the public knows that just because someone buys you a box of chocolates at that special time of year and promises to never repeat the past mistakes, it doesn’t always mean its true.

While the party’s election manifesto includes a series of popular promises coupled with the repeated emphasis on the recovery and stability, the latest opinion poll shows voters are not yet convinced to sign up again in just 11 days’ time.

And that could spell trouble for a party keen to rekindle its 2011 coalition with Labour by outlining key results from the first five years of its marriage that are now coming to the fore for voters.

Fine Gael’s lengthy manifesto was in effect a highlight reel of recent media leaks, outlining what another five years of having it in charge will do for the country.

On social matters it has promised to deliver a €25 weekly pension rise; increase the minimum wage to a “sensible” €10.50, a rate notably below Labour’s €11.30 plan; give €20 more a week to social welfare recipients who are carers or sick; and increase the mandatory school age to 17.

On public services that have been so battered by the recession, it has committed to a long-overdue five-year budget for health from next year to resolve the system’s dysfunctional spending; providing free GP care for all children by 2019; giving 10,000 children with a domiciliary care allowance a medical card; installing a €430m national flood plan; and providing a second free pre-school year.

On jobs and taxes there is an equally keen vote-grabbing focus, with moves to create 200,000 jobs; cut regional unemployment to 7%; remove USC completely; and to claw back 5% from anyone earning over €100,000.

It all sounds good on paper, particularly when said by people, who due to the stage they spoke at, were literally framed by seven different “let’s keep the recovery going” party slogan signs — leaving Mr Kenny so influenced he mentioned “recovery” 22 times in a 12-minute speech.

But like any person who has had a troubled romantic history, voters hearing the news on Valentine’s day will note a number of minor matters that could imply that not everything is as it seems. While Fine Gael is promising to scrap USC, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the EU have both warned this could hollow out the tax base and risk another recession, advice Finance Minister Michael Noonan noted yesterday before saying “it is the Government that makes the decisions”.

Although clawing back 5% from people earning over €100,000 is again popular, the decision to reduce the PRSI entry point to €13,000 will hit the lowest paid.

Despite commitments to provide free GP care for all children, reduce junior and senior school class sizes to 18, and increase the old age pension by 2021, all are dependent on the recovery continuing — a fact that in a small open economy is by no means certain.

And the fiscal space argument? No please, let’s not fight again — particularly when the green shoots of recovery are being overshadowed by the storm clouds of a wobbling world economy.

In his own romantic electioneering way, Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday reminded the public to think of that moonlit night when he first arrived to wipe away our heartbroken tears.

“Five years ago on a night in early spring, I asked people to take a leap of faith with me so that together we could restore the recovery,” he said. Noting the comparison with the previous suitor who treated us so badly and which has returned to catch the eye, he said Fianna Fáil gave a generation “a graduation present of a one-way ticket to London, Vancouver, and Brisbane”, adding: “If they got the opportunity they would do so again.”

Fine Gael’s manifesto does all it can to emphasise the positives of keeping it in power. But with polls tightening and a seemingly renewed Fianna Fáil waiting in the wings, it remains unclear whether the Valentine’s promises will convince voters to keep the marriage going after February 26.

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