Martin strikes first blood in game to win votes by auction politics
WEEK 2 into the General Election campaign and we’re already bamboozled with promises. Auction politics is back with a bang and political parties are vying for support by promising the sun, moon and stars, but mainly houses and cash.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar surprised everyone by going to the Áras two days before expected on Tuesday, catching pretty much all of the other parties on the hop. Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson Michael McGrath looked callow and awkward on a TV debate on Thursday night as he was unable to talk about his party’s manifesto, as it wasn’t ready to be announced.
‘I like your manifesto/Put it to the testo,’ the Sultans of Ping sang in their hit song ‘Where’s Me Jumper’ but it was a case of the Emperor has no Clothes for McGrath on that occasion. A lot has happened since then, however, with Fianna Fáil coming out with the mother of all promises by pledging to give first-time buyers €1 for every €3 they save for a mortgage as part of a radical new plan to make home ownership a reality for thousands of young families.
The new SSIA-style savings scheme would be capped at €10,000 per person and run in conjunction with the Help to Buy scheme which the party would expand to allow homeowners claim up to €25,000 from the State off the cost of a new house.
The Fianna Fáil policy would mean a first-time buyer could potentially get up to €35,000 in State support when buying a new home if Micheal Martin’s party was in government after the General Election.
The only problem is this will not lead to a sustainable housing policy and is more likely to create a boom/bust scenario, with the added negative that home owners are likely to add thousands or tens of thousands onto the cost of their properties in anticipation of the subsidy.
On Sunday Micheál Martin dropped another bomb on the shaky political promise landscape by announcing that his party would seek to outlaw contracts that force people to retire at 65.
He said the party would review moving retirement to 67 on the basis that there needs to be what he called a ‘ level playing pitch’.
Mr Martin said compulsory retirement at 65 needed to change and he would look for ‘graduated retirement’.
Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar said leaving the State pension age below 67 would be ‘irresponsible’ and ‘reforming makes sense’.
I know people who were forced to retire aged 65 when they were perfectly capable of carrying on and doing a great job. It’s not a one size fits all scenario as manual jobs often mean people cannot continue working beyond the 65 year mark.
Meanwhile Labour and Sinn Fein are trying to outdo one another in the house building stakes: the former promising 80,000 affordable hours over five years and the latter 100,000. Sure why not!
On Monday another demographic was teased by Mr Martin with the promise of double children’s allowance in the first month after the birth of as child.
Whether or not the euros and house figures add up to votes remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure, we’re in for a tantalising few weeks.