Letter in the Sunday Independent

30th March, 2010

SundayIndependent

Sir,

Marc Coleman’s recent criticism of Fine Gael’s economic thinking ignores all of our recent policies. While commentators and politicians sometimes make selective use of facts, to ignore all of our analysis over the last 8 years is some achievement.

Richard Bruton was the leading voice in pointing out that competitiveness was eroded by wasteful spending and lack of competition. Since the onset of this economic depression we have continually argued that competition and a focus on cost reduction is an essential part of national recovery. Any commentary that fails to acknowledge this is at best incomplete or, at worst, biased.

He states that we fail to argue for reversal of ‘destructive tax hikes’. Has he missed our party arguing that our country cannot tax it’s way out of recession and our warnings over stealth taxes?

We were the only political party to oppose bench marking as it would lead to wage increases that would be short lived as they were not matched to productivity gains. Marc also does not acknowledge that Fine Gael produced a budget, in advance of the Government, that protected the low paid workers that he now defends.

Marc is far sighted in acknowledging national challenges. It is disappointing that the same breadth of vision cannot acknowledge that Fine Gael has pointed to the same difficulties and is campaigning on a plausible plan for recovery. We both agree that ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ so some impartiality would be welcome.

Yours sincerely

Senator
Paschal Donohoe