Tag Archives: Labour

Uncategorized

National interest best served by a general election

The Labour Party has received no letter from John Gormley so it is not clear what exactly he is talking about; whether it is a national government or some sort of dialogue about fiscal objectives.

The Labour Party is a responsible party that will never play politics with the national interest. When Brian Cowen’s government made such a botch of the first Lisbon Referendum, rather than attempting to seek some political advantage, the Labour Party put all its efforts into ensuring that the second referendum would pass.

We also supported the commitment entered into by the government with the EU to reduce the deficit to 3% by 2014. Labour did so voluntarily and without having to be asked. We produced a set of budget proposals last year consistent with the achievement of this target and we will do so again this year.

However, we strongly believe that the national interest will now be served by the election of new government with a fresh mandate that can begin the process of renewal and lead the country to economic recovery.

Many voters will view the call from the Green Party as a desperate attempt to remind the public of its existence and a gesture that has more to do with trying to keep Fianna Fail in power and to rescue Fianna Fail and Green seats than rescuing the country.

If this were a serious initiative then surely Minister Gormley would first of all have sought agreement in advance from his senior partners in government and would then have made contact privately with other parties rather than announcing it through the media.

The Labour Party is always available to discuss and debate economic and other issues with Fianna Fail and the Greens, and the appropriate forum for this is the Dail. Unfortunately, the Green members, and the Green Ministers in particular, rarely attend the Dail. In addition the Greens combined with Fianna Fail to vote through a motion on July 8th to close down the Dail for a period of 13 weeks at a time when it was clear that economy was diving further into a tailspin.

Even if the Labour Party were to agree to some set of secret discussions with the government on the economy, we would be entering into talks with parties that clearly no longer have any mandate from the electorate. The most recent opinion poll shows, for instance, an approval rating of just 13% for the Fianna Fail/ Green government.

What the Green Party seems to be seeking is some sort of a mandate from the opposition for more of the same policies that have led this country to disaster, when what the people want is real change.

This state is facing the biggest economic crisis in its history. We face daunting challenges and decisions of unprecedented difficulty. To deal with that situation we need a government with a clear mandate and a stable majority. The biggest contributing factor to the current instability is the growing unrest on the government backbenches and their increasing doubt about their capacity to get measures through the Dail. Only a general election can remove that uncertainty.


Employment & Economy

Labour to oppose Govt motion on renewal of bank guarantee

Following a briefing from the Deputy Leader and Spokesperson on Finance, Deputy Joan Burton, the Parliamentary Labour Party has decided to vote against the government motion this evening seeking to renew the blanket bank guarantee.

Speaking after the meeting Deputy Burton said:

Today’s vote is, in effect, a vote of confidence in the government’s banking strategy. Two years after the first guarantee, which we were promised would cost nothing, we are faced with enormous bills, credit is still scarce, and the cost of Government borrowing is soaring. The Labour Party has no confidence in the government’s banking strategy. We stood alone in opposing the original guarantee in September 2008 and we have been more than vindicated by developments since.

Labour doesn’t do blank cheques. We were told that the original guarantee would be the cheapest bank rescue in the world, but it has already cost Irish taxpayers more than €30bn, and the bill keeps rising. Every time that Brian Lenihan or Brian Cowen has tried to put a line under the bank losses, they have been found some months later to have completely underestimated the scale of the problem. They scoffed when the IMF suggested last year that the total bill could hit €25bn, but this has already been surpassed.

We are being asked to extend the guarantee today, but we are not being told yet what the cost of the last blank cheque will be – the Government are insisting on voting this through, but they wont tell the taxpayer the cost of the Anglo bailout.

Two years on from the bank guarantee, the government has still made no progress with the introduction of a Special Resolution Regime for the banks. – once the guarantee was granted, the introduction of such a resolution mechanism was the only realistic way in which the financial burden could be shared appropriately between taxpayers and the banks’ investors.

As of midnight tonight, there will be €40bn of bank liabilities which will fall outside the guarantee, but without a bank resolution act, it will be difficult to ensure that those bondholders make a fair contribution to cost of the banking failure.

In the weeks before the original blanket guarantee was put in place the Labour Party called for enhanced protections for ordinary depositors, but these protections should not have been extended to the professional investors who took a punt on bank bonds. The Central Bank Governor, Professor Patrick Honohan, has since vindicated this position in his report on the banking crisis.

‘Omerta’ has been official government policy on the banks from day one. Labour was briefed on this motion today at 10am, and the Department were unable to answer basic questions put to them by the Labour Party, such as:

– Will Irish banks be facing a further funding cliff in December, when the guarantee extension is set to expire?
– How much debt has each institution guaranteed under the ELG scheme to date?
– How much debt is expected to be issued under the ELG scheme between now and the end of December?
– Will the government urgently introduce a ‘Special Resolution Regime’ for banks?
– Is a further guarantee extension, beyond December, envisaged?

The government has also choreographed events in such a way as to give the Dail the least possible time to consider the motion on the renewal of the bank guarantee. The Dail has been in recess for twelve weeks. When the government decided that the Dail would return on September 29th they knew that a decision would have to be made by midnight that night on the renewal of the scheme. Why was the Dail not brought back earlier so that it would have adequate time to consider the renewal proposal.

We are also being asked to make this decision on the guarantee a day before the Regulator is to disclose the full extent to the likely cost of bailing out Anglo-Irish Bank. We are told that this figure will not be announced until after the markets close tomorrow. At this stage the Regulator must know the amount, the government must know the full amount. It is simply not acceptable that the Dail should be asked to make a decision on the guarantee while the information on Anglo is being withheld from TDs.

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Uncategorized

Opening of the next phase of the M50 N3 upgrade

Joan Burton TD welcomes the opening of the next phase of the M50 N3 upgrade.

Regular users of the N3 Navan Road have become accustomed to the road works that have been part of the M50 and Auburn Ave upgrade over the last two years will be delighted to hear that from next Tuesday 13th July, the Auburn Avenue Junction will be re-opened in full when the new traffic lights signals and junction lay-out comes into operation.

The following day Wednesday 14th July at 06:00am a significant inbound section of the M50 intersection (Dublin City direction) will be opened to motorists. I have included a map which you can download to see the operation of the new intersection lay out in full.

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