Republican News · Thursday 25 April 2002

PDs reinvent the wheel

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

Hats off this week to the Progressive Democrats. Just when you thought it was safe to believe that all the establishment parties were the same they pop up and shatter your cosy illusions.

Their manifesto launch last weekend was packed with 'new' thinking, the most innovative of which seemed to be having the launch on a Sunday. Wow, what will the next big idea from Mary Harney be?

The actual proposals from the PDs were as expected but there was a strange logic in their reasoning. There will be more cuts in the top rate of income tax, from 42% to 40%, and finally, the PDS after five budgets will find time to take the low paid out of the tax net.

It is interesting that as a part of government, the Progressive Democrats have the best possible view of the state's finances and they see room for more tax cuts. If there is such money, why is it not spent totally on increasing the amount of money a worker can take home before paying tax by means of the tax free allowance. Such a scheme would allow all workers the exact same financial benefit with the added benefit of giving low paid workers the best proportionate increase. This could be a first step to reversing the last five years of giving the largest proportionate tax cuts to the wealthiest in society.

Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney attacked the proposals of other parties to take money from the newly established state pension fund. Not to worry though, Harney has found €8 billion to extra to spend. €2 billion will come from Central Bank reserves while she envisages raising another €6 billion through selling off ESB, Bord Gais, Aer Lingus and commercial ports.

These billions will be put into a National Transformation Fund, which will be used to finance infrastructure projects. The PD manifesto tells us how this fund will be used. It says, "We need to invest in roads, in railways, in housing, in our health and educational systems. We must redress our infrastructural deficit if we want this country to achieve its full potential in terms of economic growth and improved quality of life".

While not sounding like the manifesto of a party that has been in government for five years, the Progressive Democrats now want the electorate to return it to power to do the work it neglected and by selling off important state assets.

One wonders has it occurred to Harney that previous governments also had to find billions to invest in infrastructure. The telecommunications network presided over by Eircom, the food processing plants owned by Greencore, the huge financial funds controlled by Irish Life were all once built by public sector effort, with our tax revenue.

Successive Governments built these companies like the ESB and Bord Gais because the private sector refused to play their part in investing in and constructing the economy that would create jobs for all.

Now the PDs want to sell companies that the private sector wouldn't help invest in when there was a clear social and economic need for them. With the money raised we then go and invest in new infrastructure that the private sector won't help provide. They only want to buy and control the resources they formerly spurned. How long will it be before we sell off the new infrastructure that the PDs want to build?

Well done Mary, you have reinvented the wheel.