Fianna Fail - GE11 - Manifesto - Real Plan Better Future.

[ang]

Fianna Fail have published their Manifesto here are some points from the document which is linked to at the bottom of this post:-

Reviving The Economy And
Restoring The Public Finances

Despite the crisis, the Irish economy has enduring strengths. These have survived
the downturn and give this country a good platform for our recovery:
• A young, well-educated workforce
• Favourable demographics
• High quality physical infrastructure
• An open economy with a strong high-technology exporting base
• A pro-enterprise environment
• A highly flexible economy
The aim of every action Fianna Fáil has taken in government over the last three
years has been to return our country to the path of sustainable economic growth
in which jobs can be created and protected. The decisions we have taken have
been difficult. But they have been the right decisions for our citizens.

A Plan For Jobs:-

The core principles which underpin our proposals to create jobs are:
• Help individuals with education and training opportunities which can get
them back into employment.
• Aid businesses that have the capacity to innovate and grow.
• Promote Ireland’s position as a world centre for high-technology enterprise
by investing in the training and research which are vital to this objective.
• Develop our vital agrifood sector to reach its potential for employment and
value-added products that are in demand worldwide.
• Sustain high levels of capital investment in employment-intensive projects
which boost the competitiveness of the economy.
The

Reform of Politics & Government:-

Why action is needed
All mature democracies should be willing to undertake an open review of their
political culture. Of the many major failings in Ireland’s political culture the
failure of our parliamentary system to consider structural problems until it was
too late is the most significant. The dominance of short-term considerations in
public debate is obvious.
We believe that the essential way to assist recovery and ensure future
sustainability in public policy is to radically reform the procedures for choosing
and operating both parliament and government.
The objective evidence suggests three core public policy failings in recent years:
• Significant increases in spending on public services and welfare were
implemented on the basis of revenue projections which proved to be
entirely inaccurate.
• The tax base was narrowed too significantly with cyclical income becoming
too large a proportion of public revenues.
• Oversight of the banking system signally failed.

http://election.fiannafail.ie/pages/read-the-plan

Michael Martin has said any policies missing from this manifesto will be addressed by way of policy releases over the coming days.

THE FIANNA Fáil election manifesto commits the party to a range of measures on job creation and political reform and pledges to implement the remaining elements of the National Recovery Plan.

“I have decided that our election manifesto should put aside the old approach of addressing every single policy,” party leader Micheál Martin writes in the introduction to Real Plan. Better Future.

The party launched the document yesterday in Dublin.

“In a broad range of areas which we have not included in this manifesto, we will be publishing policy statements in the days ahead,” the party leader’s statement adds.

The party’s policy on health, for example, is expected later this week.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...289258294.html

[simonj]

Reviving The Economy And
Restoring The Public Finances

Despite the crisis, the Irish economy has enduring strengths. These have survived the downturn and give this country a good platform for our recovery:
- The crisis was primarily a home grown affair, with FF and the Greens at the helm.

• A young, well-educated workforce
- Utter BS when you are cutting back so much on 3rd level education and increasing costs to students and their families.

• Favourable demographics
-Hardly, emigration of our best trained youth and an aging population are becoming a problem.

• High quality physical infrastructure
-We have good roads, but poor integration of transport hubs, e.g. no tram or train at Dublin or Cork Airports. Our maritime transport infrastructure is very poor.

• An open economy with a strong high-technology exporting base
-More reliance on MNCs, no mention of SMEs

• A pro-enterprise environment
-Read more light touch regulation

• A highly flexible economy
-Reduction in wages and labour rights

The aim of every action Fianna Fáil has taken in government over the last three years has been to return our country to the path of sustainable economic growth in which jobs can be created and protected. The decisions we have taken have been difficult.
But they have been the right decisions for our citizens.

- The decisions made by FF and friends have been demonstrably the wrong ones, and have created lack of confidence, mass emigration and lack of investment capital at home.

Quote:
The core principles which underpin our proposals to create jobs are:

• Help individuals with education and training opportunities which can get
them back into employment.

-Well, we saw the debacle at FAS, address this first

• Aid businesses that have the capacity to innovate and grow.

- The only way to do this is to have imagination which FF lack, no linking of the income of enterprise boards to success, no networking strategy.

• Promote Ireland’s position as a world centre for high-technology enterprise
by investing in the training and research which are vital to this objective.

- Education cutbacks stunt this as does the failure of banks to provide investment capital

• Develop our vital agrifood sector to reach its potential for employment and
value-added products that are in demand worldwide.

- Great, from the people who destroyed the sugarbeet industry and whose fisheries policies are a joke

• Sustain high levels of capital investment in employment-intensive projects
which boost the competitiveness of the economy.

- well, if you believed in this then the Corrib gas field should have been planned for more than 200 low paid jobs, with most work based out of Ayrshire and not even considering projects like SoI

The
Reform of Politics & Government:-

All mature democracies should be willing to undertake an open review of their political culture.

Of the many major failings in Ireland’s political culture the failure of our parliamentary system to consider structural problems until it was
too late is the most significant.
- In fairness, the system we have was designed by FF for FF.

The dominance of short-term considerations in public debate is obvious.
- Yup, as is clienism, nepotism and gombeenism based on the constituancy system - and as the FF proviso states "“In a broad range of areas which we have not included in this manifesto, we will be publishing policy statements in the days ahead,” i.e. make it up as you go along

We believe that the essential way to assist recovery and ensure future
sustainability in public policy is to radically reform the procedures for choosing and operating both parliament and government.
The objective evidence suggests three core public policy failings in recent years:

• Significant increases in spending on public services and welfare were
implemented on the basis of revenue projections which proved to be
entirely inaccurate.

- public service spending without accountability has repeatedly failed, and FF have cut welfare to prop up failed bankers who will never be held accountable.

• The tax base was narrowed too significantly with cyclical income becoming
too large a proportion of public revenues.
- Well who allowed the property bubble to grow unchecked, and who has shown complete lack of foresight despite warnings?

• Oversight of the banking system signally failed.
-Yup, they were all too busy playing golf or messing about in the Galway tent

Enough FF BS, just go, the damage done to the country by FF and the Greens is longterm and will take a great more work to deal with than FF or the Greens have the ability or intelligence to do