Fine Gael and Labour present a midterm economic strategy with no real vision for the future
Report laden with optimistic macroeconomic targets and devoid of specific measures to deliver jobs.
Tuesday 12 December 2013,
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan responded this evening to the publication of the Government's mid-term economic strategy:
"This report offers nothing new in the wake of the exit from the bailout. While the necessity for caution in government expenditure is clear, the Government benches seem to be devoid of ideas offering anything other than the fiscal discipline set by the Department of Finance."
"The report fails to assess the changes within the global economy that will determine our future. It provides no analysis as to how we might benefit from any global opportunities that are arising or how we might avoid some of the risks that are also emerging. Once again the Government has shown its lack of vision for how we could be at the forefront of the Green Economy. The industries they target are in the traditional food, tourism and construction sectors, but they say nothing new as to how we might manage or brand those industries."
"Increasingly the Labour Party seems to be subsumed into Fine Gael. It as if they see no role for the state in this economic future. There are no plans for improving vital public transport services. They are cutting back public ownership of electricity generating assets. They have no investment plans for the digital economy. It is very much a market-led approach to economic planning. The model they follow is the same one that has existed for the last three decades, as if nothing changed with the financial crisis of the last five years."
Green Party Finance Spokesperson Mark Deary said, "The strategy is dominated by a macroeconomic analysis which assumes some very optimistic growth forecasts for the latter part of this decade. Given the almost impossible task in predicting that future, it would have been better for the Government to have set out several possible scenarios with different growth and revenue assumptions. We are still not out of the woods of this financial crisis yet, and it would be better for our economic plans to reflect such realities."
"The Government is maintaining the broad strategy set by its predecessor of continuing investment in scientific research and development, but there seem to be very few other microeconomic measures they want to introduce. It is as if, having implemented the four year bailout programme, they are happy to keep things going exactly as they are. They are conservative in their mindset and not daring enough to think differently about the social, economic and environmental future that is ahead of us."