FG briefing:Fine Gael has promised to introduce a series of policy measures to reduce the high cost of living. Describing Fianna Fáil as the "godfather of rip-off Ireland", Fine Gael finance spokesman and former enterprise minister Richard Bruton committed his party to reforming the public sector and including consumers in future social partnership negotiations.
"Ireland has become not only the most expensive country in Europe but our inflation is accelerating away, leaving those other countries way behind in our wake," Mr Bruton said yesterday. Inflation was highest in those parts of the economy that were state-controlled, he said.
"Inflation in those sectors directly controlled or regulated by Government are rising at two and a half times the rate of inflation in the rest of the euro zone. That is simply unsustainable."
He accused the Government of using fees for public services to "plug a hole" in its finances. "College fees went up 120 per cent, hospital charges went up 60 per cent, passports, television licences, driving licences, Leaving Certificate fees, drug funds; huge increases right across a swathe of administrative prices way beyond inflation. These were simply done to plug a hole in Government finances."
Fine Gael in office would establish international benchmarks for existing public service charges and would cap any future price increases to the rate of inflation. "We will be setting a requirement that international benchmarks of efficiency be the core to any price increases," he said.
Specific measures in the proposal also include curbing local authority charges, introducing more competitive tendering for local authority services and a range of regulatory reforms. Under Fine Gael plans, the National Consumer Agency would be given the same status as the ombudsman.
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan said the Government had failed to protect the interests of consumers against powerful utility companies. "Big utility companies and their lawyers have been running rings around the Government and the toothless regulators they established."
He committed Fine Gael to shifting the balance of power away from producers and towards consumers. As well as publishing a consumer's charter for the utility sector, Mr Hogan said Fine Gael would seek a settlement to break up Eircom into separate network infrastructure and service companies to ensure universal access to broadband.
Under the scheme, a new network of telecommunications assets would be put under the management of a public-private partnership. "We believe that no organisation will be able to veto or delay the development of Ireland's strategic telecoms infrastructure as happened over the last decade."
Fine Gael also proposes to remove ownership of the national electricity grid from the ESB to encourage more competition in the electricity market.
Despite presenting its own policies, Mr Bruton said Fine Gael's approach on reform was consistent with the view of the Labour Party.