FG Bill would force Govt to implement key McCarthy recommendations

Government Ministers would be given a four week deadline to cut prices of vital State items like TV licences, State exam fees, A&E charges and passports under plans being debated tonight (Tuesday) in the Dáil. Regulators would be given three months to do the same for their areas like ESB, gas, bus and train fares, tolls and airport charges.

Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has prepared emergency legislation which would force the Government to impose 5% cuts on its own prices, and for Regulators to reduce their own charges. This would save the average family around €400 a year.

“Thanks to this Government, people have seen their incomes and benefits cut, and their taxes hiked upwards. Many have lost their jobs. The crisis in the real economy stems from unemployment and declining competitiveness. This crisis is doing the most damage to our society, but is being ignored by the Government. If Fianna Fáil and the Greens can use emergency financial legislation to cut pay and benefits, surely it can use the same mechanism to cut its own charges?

“Last year the Government actually increased its own charges by 6.7%, while prices across the economy fell by 5%. It’s easy to forget the extent to which the Government controls prices in the economy through direct charges, indirect taxes and through it regulators:

 

• TV licence (€160);
• Driving licence (€25);
• Passport (€80);
• A+E charge (€100);
• Inpatient charge (€75);
• Junior/Leaving Cert (roughly €100); and
• Third level registration (€1,500).

“The price of petrol, diesel and home-heating oil prices consists mainly of taxes levied by the Government including excise, VAT and the carbon tax. And the Government’s regulators set most bus and train fares, most motorway tolls, electricity and gas, telephone charges and postage, and airport charges. Despite recent reductions, our household electricity prices are above average in the Eurozone and are among the highest for medium-sized industry.

“Fine Gael’s Bill requires all Government Ministers to present to the Dáil within four weeks a plan to reduce all charges set by them by 5%. And with regard to prices set by the government’s regulators, this Bill requires that Ministers require regulators to publish their own proposals within three months.”

Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesperson Leo Varadkar TD has published new laws to slash Government costs by 5%, saving the average household around €400 a year.

Deputy Varadkar has drafted the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2010 which requires the Government to reduce all of its charges to businesses and consumers by 5% within three weeks. In 2009, private sector prices fell by 2.5% but Government prices went up 6.7%.

The Bill also calls on Regulators to come up with plans to reduce prices they set and present them to the Dáil within four months. Assuming these further price cuts are also 5% across the board, the average household would stand to save a total of €400 from this measure in a full year. The savings to business would be greater still.

Speaking at the launch, Deputy Varadkar said: ‘Last year, the Government introduced emergency legislation to cut pay, benefits and fees paid to professionals and contractors. Everyone has been squeezed by falling incomes and higher taxes. The very least the Government could do to help is reduce its own charges and the prices set by its Regulators. In 2009, private sector prices fell by 2.5% but Government prices went up 6.7%’.

“People don’t realise just how many prices are set by the Government:

• The TV licence and drivers’ licence;
• Passport renewal fees; A&E charges;
• Prescription charges (DPS);
• State exam fees;
• And college registration fees, fees charged to companies for filing accounts, farm administration fees, and fees charged for making a freedom of information request.

“Through local government, agencies and Regulators the Government sets prices for electricity and gas, local authority refuse and water charges, some motorway tolls, bus and train fares, mobile telephone tariffs and airport landing fees.

“If Fianna Fáil and the Greens back this measure from Fine Gael, it will save Irish families and consumers hundreds of euros, and soften the blow of recent pay cuts, benefit cuts and tax hikes. It will also reduce the cost of doing business, improve our competitiveness and save jobs. I think it’s a no-brainer. I urge the Government parties will support it when it is debated in the Dáil.”

The Bill and Explanatory Memorandum can be accessed here.

Quango sepnds €500K on PR

The spend by the National Consumer Agency (NCA) of €18,000 on average a month every month for over two and a half years to a public relations company cannot be justified Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesperson, Leo Varadkar TD said today (Sunday).

Deputy Varadkar made his comments after media reports highlighted the fact that €562,057 of taxpayers’ funds was paid by the State body despite the fact that it is being wound down.

“That this quango needs to spend any amount of money at all on outside PR is a mystery.
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Work to rule will hurt vulnerable

With public sector unions escalating their work to rule this week, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has warned their action is not an effective way to bring the message home to Fianna Fáil and the Greens, and will have a bigger impact on the vulnerable.

“The work to rule and go-slow which have been stepped up this week will hurt users of public services much more than they hurt the Government. These include children in schools, patients in hospitals, unemployed people looking for jobs and training, and pensioners seeking medical cards or other benefits. It will only serve to deepen the divisions in our society between the public and private sectors.

“Ireland needs public sector reform and savings, but the approach being taken by the Government and unions will make both much harder to achieve.
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Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has slammed union leader Liam Doran for telling critics of the proposed deal between unions and Government to ‘back off and keep their mouths shut’.

“The proposals being discussed by Government and trade unions will take 250 million hours out of the public service. This means fewer Gardaí on the beat, fewer hospital appointments and less education for our kids.

“It will also mean an across-the-board pay cut for all public servants with school cleaners and clerical officers taking the same cut as public servants on six figure salaries.

“Ordinary taxpayers, consumers, users of public services and their representative groups, and the Opposition have been shut out of these talks. We have a responsibility as politicians to speak up for them.

“Mr Doran’s ‘Uno Duce, Uno Voce’ remark is totally out of order. Ireland is still a democracy and we won’t be told to shut up.”

FG Plan to reduce youth dole by a third

A set of Fine Gael proposals targeting youth unemployment will reduce by 1/3rd the numbers of under 25s on the Live Register in 2010, according to Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny TD. He was speaking at the launch of “Hope for a Lost Generation”, a document prepared by Fine Gael’s Enterprise Spokesman, Leo Varadkar T.D. The 30,000 under 25s that will be taken off the Live Register will be made up of a combination of workshare jobs created, national internship programmes, second chance education schemes and an expanded community employment scheme.

Commenting on the document the Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny, said:

“Fine Gael has a fundamentally different approach to Fianna Fail when it comes to the Budget and tackling this economic depression. We see the Budget as an opportunity to deliver pro jobs, pro enterprise policies so that we can get our country back to work. That is why Fine Gael has shown how, through our NewERA plan, we can deliver an €18bn stimulus plan over four years that will get 105,000 people back to work. In contrast Fianna Fail wants to cut our Capital budget by €1bn. We have also shown how we can deliver a targeted PRSI tax cut to employers and create 30,000. Fianna Fail has crippled Irish business with extras taxes and charges.

“Despite this obvious challenge the Government have failed to set a clear and deliberate jobs strategy to arrest and then reverse the tide of increasing unemployment in our country. They have been focused too much on balancing the books and engaging in endless dialogue with union leaders. In the meantime our dole queues grow ever longer. Today’s proposals, targeting a lost generation in this crisis, is the latest contribution by Fine Gael to a coherent and thought out jobs strategy to cut our dole queues while fixing our budget.”

Commenting on the report its author, Leo Varadkar said:

“Today’s set of proposals involves targeted interventions in the Labour market that will take more than 30,000 people off the Live Register. The proposals in this document are deliberately targeted at those unemployed people under the age of 25. There is a real risk that we will have a permanently lost generation if something proactive is not done to stem this loss of talent and ability from our economy.

“That is why we have allowed for a net €245m worth of Labour Market interventions in our budget perspective which will be published on Friday. This money will be used to create: 13,000 graduate internship placements, 10,000 second chance education scheme placements, 5,000 extra CES places and 10,000 jobs retained through a Government supported workshare scheme.

“We conservatively estimate that over 30,000 of these 38,000 or so places will be filled by people on the Live Register. In this way we are confident that more than 1/3rd of the 87,100 under 25s on the Live Register can come off that list in 2010. This is the type of intervention, targeted and specific to our needs, that is required to get us out of this economic mess. This is the type of intervention that is sadly missing from this Government.”

The Fine Gael plan for youth employment can be accessed here.

• €6.4 million increase in payroll costs for Department and agencies
• 40% increase in advertising
• €284,000 increase in grant for FÁS administration
• €2 million in grants to ICTU, IBEC & the CIF
• €877,000 for committees and commissions

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has sanctioned massive increases in payroll, advertising and grants to employers’ organisations while cutting funding for small businesses and freezing the number of Community Employment places, according to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

Speaking today (Tuesday) at a Dáil Select Committee hearing on the revised estimates for the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Deputy Varadkar said: ‘With unemployment at a record 400,000, the Tánaiste is diverting cash from job creation and training measures while increasing funding within her own Department and its agencies’.

“Mary Coughlan has approved a €10 million hike in payroll costs, advertising, FÁS’s administration budget and grants to Social Partnership bodies like ICTU and IBEC. Yet in the same stroke, capital grants to small businesses are being slashed by more than €3 million, or 23%. The number of Community Employment Scheme places is being frozen, while IDA grant funding has been cut by more than €6 million and other Enterprise Ireland grants by more than €7 million.

“Instead of boosting job creation and training initiatives, the Tánaiste is increasing her Department’s payroll by €1million, and by €5 million for its agencies and quangos. Her advertising budget is going up by 40% to €351,000, and she has approved an extra €289,000 for the FÁS administration budget. Remarkably, payroll costs will rise at the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Labour Court and NERA, even though the number of staff will fall.
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Fine Gael Spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Leo Varadkar TD, has today (Sunday) called on the Government to publish, in full, the report issued to the Government in 2002 by the European Commission, which warned of serious financial mismanagement within Fás.

“Statements in today’s media suggest that a report by the European Commission, which was issued to the Government in 2002, warned of serious internal and financial control problems which existed within the State agency at that time. The confidential document identified ‘weak and unreliable’ internal controls, ‘unsound’ applications for EU funds and no clear paper trails for some major projects. …[more]

Last week, Fine Gael devoted its Private Members time to a motion on the current unemployment crisis. My speech on the debate can be found below the fold, while the debate in full can be accessed from the Oireachtas website (the debate was over Tuesday and Wednesday).

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Fine Gael’s Spokesman on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD, today (Sunday) said the 2008 IDA survey of multi-nationals based in Ireland has been released to Fine Gael under the Freedom of Information Act.

“This survey reveals that 45 percent of multinationals based in Ireland would not come here again. The survey cites high costs and poor infrastructure as the main reasons. …[more]