Sinn Féin budget is about showing Fianna Fáil there are options beyond Fine Gael

Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald with spokesperson on housing Eoin O Broin, finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty, and spokesperson on public expenditure Rose Conway-Walsh at the launch of Sinn Fein's alternative budget. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Sinn Féin’s alternative budget is more about showing Fianna Fáil that there are options beyond Fine Gael, rather than providing the public with significant change.

Ahead of Tuesday’s budget, Mary Lou McDonald’s party has published a decidedly centre-ground list of spending and tax options, that bar a few exceptions, Micheál Martin could easily stomach.

It represents another move towards the middle and makes doing a deal with Fianna Fáil after a general election more realistic.

Outlining the measures yesterday, finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty dismissed suggestions that Sinn Féin is simply tinkering with Government schemes that are already in place and is adopting items that are being flagged by ministers.

While the finer details and exact allocations may vary slightly, many of the proposals in Sinn Féin’s 50-page document have a familiar ring to them.

Reductions in childcare fees; changes to USC; targeted interest relief, increases to social welfare payments, as well as a double child benefit payment in December are certainly areas where Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin would have little to squabble over.

Other areas, such as changing financial assistance for retrofitting to a tiered model, which was pushed hard as a significant intervention by public expenditure spokesperson Rose Conway Walsh, is more of a tinkering around the edges of the current Government scheme rather than a truly independent approach.

Asked about the similarities in some policies being floated by the coalition Government, Doherty suggested that it is perhaps a case of the coalition ministers being swayed in their thinking rather than Sinn Féin looking to steal the Government’s clothes.

Raising the Sinn Féin promise to give a month’s rent back to tenants, spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty said 'we’ve moved Government in relation to that policy'. Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins

Raising the Sinn Féin promise to give a month’s rent back to tenants — which after the budget could work out at roughly the same as Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s tax credit for renters — Doherty said: “We’ve moved Government in relation to that policy.”

He added: “We’re producing an alternative budget. We want to be in government to actually deliver this type of budget. What our job is at this point in time is to force government into a space where they’re not currently in. And if they do that, if they implement some of these proposals, then that will be a job well done.”

McDonald also stressed that her party and the coalition differ on the “manner and the scale” of investment.

While Sinn Féin’s housing targets are more ambitious and health measures go further than the current coalition, Sinn Féin’s offering is far from radical.

Perhaps looking to coax Fianna Fáil into a post-election arrangement, McDonald has even watered down its stance on a wealth tax.

Once a key priority that set it apart from the other two main parties, a wealth tax has now been pushed down the tracks, with Sinn Féin now settling on establishing a commission to review options available.

Radical of course, is something you can be when you have no intention of entering power, and Sinn Féin is no longer in this space.

Unlike the rural Independents, who yesterday were suggesting everything from the overnight abolition of the USC to the establishment of tax-free savings, McDonald now needs to ensure that her party’s proposals can be delivered.

The Sinn Féin alternative budget represents another move towards the middle and makes doing a deal with Fianna Fáil after a general election even more realistic.