Celtic Tiger dominates election campaigning
The fate of the Celtic Tiger dominated the second day’s campaigning in the general election.
Parties on all sides traded insults over the handling of the beast and ways of restoring its full health.
Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy rejected claims that new plans advanced by Fianna Fail to ensure a continuation of the good times for Ireland were merely a ruse.
Fine Gael came up with new tax ideas - and the Progressive Democrats made their views clear by going to a Co Kildare town named Prosperous.
It looked tonight, though, as if the economy was set to play a dominant role in the three-week campaign for votes in the May 17 nationwide poll.
For while the various parties, both in and out of power, have opened the debate, it has been joined by groups like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The independent, Paris-based think-tank has gone on record to criticise the levels of Government spending, while continuing to forecast a healthy rate of growth for the country.
Both sides in the election are expected to seize on observations like that to back their arguments ahead of the election - and it is an issue that seems unlikely to go away.
Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan dismissed as ‘‘Enron economics’’ a Fianna Fail proposal to establish a National Development Finance Agency to oversee improvements to Ireland’s often-criticised infrastructure.
But Mr McCreevy rejected claims that the planned organisation - set to raise money for projects through a bonds system - amounted to ‘‘borrowing under another guise’’.
He declared that as well as roads, transport, schools and health facilities, the agency could also be an appropriate way of financing and delivering other key elements such as broadband infrastructure.
Its finances would be fully accounted for within the Government balance where the cost fell to the government.
The agency would as well help state authorities to obtain the best finance packages by applying commercial standards in terms of evaluating financial risks and costs of projects and lead to major savings on consultants’ fees.
For her part, Tanaiste and Progressive Democrats leader Mary Harney said: ‘‘The country is prosperous, so we have come to Prosperous,’’ adding: ‘‘We have overcome the curse of decades: mass unemployment and forced emigration.
‘‘We have made a tremendous advance for social justice. The prosperity of the past five years has enabled us to more than double spending on health; to treble child benefit payments, and to raise the Old Age Pension by 50%. During the lifetime of this Government well over 200,000 people have been lifted out of poverty.
‘‘We have opened opportunity across society. We have become confident in ourselves as a country.
‘‘The Progressive Democrats are putting ourselves before the electorate on the basis of our record in Government in the past five years, and of our creative and prudent commitments for the next five years.
:: Election posters emerged as something of an issue on day two of the campaign. Radio listeners phoned into chat shows claiming the placards were heavier than usual, falling off lamp posts and causing injuries in some cases.
And in a Wicklow constituency, Fianna Fail candidate Dick Roche reported that more than 700 of his posters had disappeared overnight throughout the county.
He said: ‘‘They were there when I drove home from electioneering early today, but gone when I went out again at around 6.30.’’
