FF backlash over Martin’s vow to pass FG Budget
Senior figures warn Martin deal with FG damaging party
FIANNA Fáil leader Micheál Martin is facing a backlash from his own party after he vowed to complete the threeyear confidence and supply agreement with Fine Gael and avoid an election this year.
However, senior figures in the party have said it should go to the polls if its redline Budget issues on housing and health are not met.
Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness told the Irish Independent that grassroots members and TDs are “worried” the party’s continued support for the Government is not in its best interests.
Meanwhile, the party’s spokesman on public expenditure and reform, Barry Cow- en, said while they will “stick with” the confidence and supply agreement, “we’re not committed blindly”.
Mr Martin says he is “fully determined” to complete the three-year agreement and avoid an election this year.
Speaking on RTÉ’s ‘The Week in Politics’, he said: “We’ve honoured the agreement up to now and are fully determined that we continue to honour the agreement.”
However, he added: “The next Budget has to be a housing budget and it has to be a health budget and we have to honestly deal with those two challenges above everything else.”
The Government’s plan to ditch tax cuts and an abolition or significant reduction of the USC in this year’s budget have come as a surprise to Fianna Fáil TDs. Targeting the USC is a key commitment between the Government and Fianna Fáil.
FIANNA Fáil should go to the polls if the party’s red-line budget issues aren’t met, senior party figures have warned.
Party leader Micheál Martin is facing a backlash from members as concerns have been raised Fianna Fáil is being damaged by the confidence and supply agreement.
Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness told the Irish Independent that grass roots members as well as Oireachtas representatives are “worried” that the party’s continued support for the arrangement is not in its best interests.
His comments come as details of Government plans to ditch tax cuts and an abolition or significant reduction of the USC as part of this year’s Budget were revealed by the ‘Sunday Independent’.
Mr McGuinness said the current situation was “not functioning because the Government won’t let any of our bills or our ideas through”. He added: “It’s very bad for Fianna Fáil.”
Targeting the USC is a key commitment in the agreement between the Government and Fianna Fáil, and revised plans not to touch it have come as a surprise to Fianna Fáil TDs.
Fianna Fáil negotiator Barry Cowen said the USC was an emergency tax and “we expect it to dissipate as the emergency dissipates”. He said: “We want the eradication of the USC as per previously agreed.” Mr Cowen confirmed the party intends to “stick with the confidence and supply” deal, but said “we’re not committed blindly”.
Mr Martin is trying hard to contain anxieties over the party’s credibility because of its association with the agreement.
Fianna Fáil is struggling to maintain the balance of serving as a robust party in Opposition when the Government is vastly under-performing on fundamental issues such as housing.
Mr Martin said he is “fully determined” to complete the three-year agreement and avoid an election this year.
Speaking on RTÉ’s ‘The Week in Politics’, he said: “We’ve honoured the agreement up to now and are fully determined that we continue to honour the agreement.”
However, he added: “The next Budget has to be a housing budget and it has to be a health budget and we have to honestly deal with those two challenges above everything else.”
TDs say they were unaware of the Government’s likely proposal to essentially keep the USC as it is.
“Sure, we haven’t begun to consult or negotiate yet,” said Mr Cowen of reading about the Government’s proposals.
Frontbench spokesperson Robert Troy said the party “should go to the country with our own manifesto and seeking our own mandate”, at least when the Budget is passed.
He said the party will have demands in the Budget and will be seeking to tackle Government “failings on housing and health and transport”.
The latest USC stuff “could be another kite-flying exercise”, but “we’ll have to discuss an election” as a party, he said.
Bobby Aylward, also a Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, accused the Government of “deliberately” trying to cause an election by refusing to deal with demands to dissolve the USC.
“If they renege on the USC then they’re deliberately doing it to cause an election,” he said.
“If they don’t honour their commitments then we can’t roll over, we should have an election. I don’t think we’ve done well out of it [the confidence and supply agreement] or got the recognition.”
Mr McGuinness says there is a “growing consensus” among Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members who feel the same.
He says this has been expressed to him privately and at parliamentary party meetings.
Mr McGuinness took issue with how legislation brought forward by Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath, which would see vulture funds regulated by the Central Bank, was “parked”. The Government accepted it but said it needed considerable reworking.
“There are loads of examples where they [the Government] could take our policy and work on them but they don’t, so what are we supposed to do?
“Stand over another year when they’re not delivering? It’s turning in to a farce,” he said.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Brexit Lisa Chambers says she doesn’t have a preference for an election or renegotiation, but warned Fine Gael “can’t pass a budget without our support”.