Mary-Lou McDonald has called the government’s spring statement “grandiose claims that have amounted to nothing”. Ms McDonald’s words came as just one facet of a stream of criticism aimed at the government’s spring statement.
Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath told Minster for Finance Michael Noonan the statement had been “a self serving exercise in congratulating yourselves ... (it is) just another PR exercise from a government that is running out of road.”
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Public Expenditure Sean Fleming TD said that the government had used the spring statement to kick start their general election campaign.
“It’s an abuse of this house to turn into the opening launch of a general election campaign,” he said.
“I think the public will see this for what it is, pure political spin,” he said.
Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty called the statement “a damp squib”, and that “You wouldn’t need to be a blood hound to smell an election in the air in Leinster House.” The Donegal TD said that the government were attempting “to bribe people with their own money.”
He went on to heavily criticise the economic policies in the document, saying the measures, with a 50:50 split between tax cuts and spending increases, would “mean nothing to the vast majority of people out there.”
Mr Doherty dismissed Mr Nonnan’s claim that reducing the marginal tax rate was a tool for attracting Irish abroad to return home, asking the Minister if he thought “young people left because marginal tax rates were too high?”
Outside Leinster House, several groups have responded to the spring statement with varying levels of approval and dismay. Age Action, the national charity working for older people, expressed its disappointment “that older people were largely missing from today’s Spring Statement.”
Justin Moran, Head of Advocacy and Communications at Age action, said: “Older people have been waiting more than two years for a plan to implement the Government’s National Positive Ageing Strategy. There was no sign today of any serious planning to prepare for the future.”
The promises of tax cuts were met with concern by several groups, with Jimmy Kelly, Ireland Secretary of trade union Unite, saying: “the Government appears set for a re-run of the Fianna Fail policy prior to the crash, reducing tax revenue to unsustainable levels at the expense of investment both in the productive economy and in the vital services on which we all rely.”
“The fact is that tax cuts will not provide affordable childcare, remove the 1.5 million suffering deprivation, reduce public transport costs, guarantee adequate pension income or provide the necessary services to the disabled,” he added.
The announcement of tax cuts was welcomed by business groups, with both IBEC and the American Chamber of Commerce voicing their approval.
“It signals a renewed ambition to encourage Irish emigrants to return home, but is also an important element in retaining talent in Ireland in the face of competition from other attractive locations to live and work around the globe,” the American Chamber of Commerce (ACOC) said in a statement.
There was little by way of enthusiasm apparent online, with most people seeing the affair as a somewhat self-congratulatory from the government, and having serious hints about the prospect of an upcoming general election.
Words don't exist for how underwhelming and oversold that was. #springstatement
— Hugh Linehan (@hlinehan) April 28, 2015
This #SpringStatement is just a complete & utter Pr exercise.#Dáil #Oireachtas
— Louise Heneghan (@LaobhaoiseNihE) April 28, 2015
When do we start using the #GE2016 hashtag? #SpringStatement
— Pádraig McCann (@Padraig_McCann) April 28, 2015
