Mick Clifford: Instead of vision, Fine Gael offers 'Toy Show' treatment
Taoiseach Simon Harris puts on a performance Irish dancing while out canvassing with Billy O'Shea in Killorglin, Kerry, over the weekend. Picture: Fergal Phillips/Released on behalf of Fine Gael.
The Fine Gael manifesto launch represented an episode of Christmas coming early, with Santa struggling under the weight of goodies — particularly for children.Â
Like the , the glossy documents had something for everybody in the audience. Or at least those in the audience who represent the electorate.
If you are likely to vote, there will be a few bits and bobs in here to ease financial pain or boost your income. For the cohort who are unlikely to vote, the promises are vague. The plea for your franchise replaced by a pat on the head.
The Horse and Jockey was an appropriate venue for the great giveaway. Before the country got rich enough to build the M8 motorway, it was an instinctive pitstop on the Cork-Dublin road. We are nearly halfway along the road in this general election campaign, so this was an ideal place to break the journey.
There was also a more earthy reason for selecting the venue. The two constituencies it borders, Tipperary North and South, are running party candidates who are not incumbent TDs.Â
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The volume of candidates who are largely unknown outside their council wards is a particular problem for Fine Gael, as over half their compliment of TDs are stepping down. Here was a chance, under the glare from both the TV cameras and the document’s glossy cover, to showcase the unknowns.
So it was that local councillor and Dáil candidate Michael Murphy did the warm up act. Most of those in attendance in the compact conference hall didn’t know who he was until he got around to introducing himself. He also introduced a video of Fine Gael’s new candidates, bringing them in from the cold of anonymity.Â
The warm-up thus betrayed a rising fear in the party. In the 43 separate constituency elections taking place, there is every chance that Fine Gael will underperform their standing in the opinion polls as incumbents enjoy a huge advantage. Maybe that goes some way to explaining the entirely reckless level of spending included in the manifesto.
The headline giveaway is the “Acorn Savings Account”, which will award every child on birth with €1,000 to begin a savings account. A guaranteed interest rate of at least 4% will be applied to the account — with the provision that parents can add up to €2,000 per annum until the child is 18.
For the children whose parents cannot afford any top up through the 18 years, the outcome will be in the region of €3,000. Under the details for the plan in the manifesto, reasons for pursuing it are given — including the hilarious “this fund will help tackle inequality”. It certainly will, tackling it in a way that widens inequality.
While there is €70m to throw at this account for everybody in the audience who can afford it, there isn’t a bob for a specific measure that has repeatedly been cited as integral to reducing child poverty.
The manifesto pledges to “examine a second tier child benefit”. So the middle class who vote in droves are promised more money, while the most impoverished who want to lift their children out of poverty will whistle Dixie.
Asked about this, Harris — who was flanked on stage by Paschal Donohoe and Helen McEntee — said he personally thinks a second tier benefit is a good idea.
“I’ve met a number of people who are in favour of it and others who have other ideas,” he said.
“We want to see the best way to take it forward. I am a believer that the argument for a second tier of child benefit is compelling, but I want to look at all the reports that are available.”
The song was the same in another element of the manifesto: Tackling the myriad of problems that surround the child and family agency, Tusla.
 “Our goal is to create a well-resourced, robust Tusla capable of safeguarding every child in need,” it reads.
No commitment there on specifics, nothing that might eat into the giveaway budget for the simple reason that those who require the services of Tusla are less likely to vote than those who can shovel €2,000 into a child’s savings account each year.
In his introduction, the Taoiseach mentioned the word "vision" repeatedly. “We are setting out a vision for a more secure future,” he said.
Take housing, the biggest problem dogging the State right now. There is a commitment to set up a new department for infrastructure, which may be a good idea, but that’s not clear yet.Â
A vision for housing at this point would surely need to include some serious measures regarding issues like security of tenure for renters. The housing crisis is now at a point that any vision should include plans for a growing cohort who are going to still be renting when they hit retirement. Yet, there was nothing in the manifesto to accept this reality.
When questioned, Paschal Donohoe pointed out that up to half of all new homes now have a social or affordable element. The strategy to continue to give out subsidies to bring new home buyers up to the market level is highly questionable, yet there is no vision as to what happens at the end of the rainbow.Â
The aspiration that increased house building alone will solve the problem looks more dodgy by the day.
Instead of vision, we had the treatment. The bulk of the document was a list of giveaway goodies.
Thorny issues like any proposed hate speech law were simply ignored altogether. Climate barely got a mention. It was all about telling voters that, cross our heart and hope to die, we will give you much more goodies than any of the bad Santas.
At this time of living precariously in terms of global politics, Fine Gael’s manifesto is reckless.
To be fair to Harris and his two confederates on the stage, they stayed for over an hour answering any question that was put to them.Â
At all the appropriate times, the gathering of candidates and party hacks in the audience clapped. They were all very well behaved and didn’t boo or hiss at any pantomime media villains. And then they all filed out, heading back to the fray armed with more promises to present on the doorstep.
The party can also feel a little aggrieved that the state of the public finances is taken for granted and due credit not extended. But now, in order to deflect from the elements of governing that it has either neglected or mismanaged while in power — such as housing — the party is simply making giveaway promises that are reckless.
They appear to believe that the promises, allied to the all-action Simon Harris pressing the flesh of every second voter in the country, will be enough to get them back into government and in a commanding position vis-a-vis any partners. There’s still a huge amount of road to be eaten between now and the destination before any conclusive verdict can be given on that strategy.
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