The PDs yesterday challenged people to scour their 2002 election manifesto to see if they could find any broken promises. Mark Brennock found quite a few
"I'd like people to go back and look at the election manifesto that we put before the people in May of last year and to point out any commitment in that manifesto from the Progressive Democrats that wasn't truthful and honest," the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said yesterday.
She was speaking a few hours after PD deputy Ms Liz O'Donnell had declared: "We as a party, the Progressive Democrats, tend not to make those sorts of promises when we know we can't sustain them. We in the last election were straight with the people. We didn't make promises we couldn't keep."
Of course, the Progressive Democrats' record in sticking to promises must be judged not only by going back to their election manifesto, but by comparing the Programme For Government agreed last year with what the Government has actually done.
Leaving aside Ms Harney's invitation to find evidence of dishonesty and untruthfulness, it is quite easy to find promises in the party's 2002 manifesto that have so far not been fulfilled.
The party manifesto committed itself to the Health Strategy, a commitment which in turn found its way into the Programme for Government. However, months before the manifesto was written, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had written to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, saying he was not committed to any of the spending proposals in it. Importantly, Mr McCreevy sent a copy of this letter to the Tánaiste. Despite this, the PD manifesto commitment to implement the Health Strategy was unqualified.
In the event, the massive capital investment pledged in the Health Strategy for 2003 has not been made.
The PD manifesto also promised: "Every primary school in the State to reach and be maintained at an acceptable, explicit national standard within three years." The estimate for spending on primary school building and repair is marginally lower than what was spent in 2002. While it is too early to list this as a broken promise, the evidence is not encouraging.
The manifesto also stated: "We will increase the strength of the Garda Síochána by 2,000 members." This unambiguous promise found its way into the Programme for Government, and its abandonment was confirmed just before Christmas by the PDs' own Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
Then there was the manifesto commitment - again included in the Programme for Government - to complete the three-year programme of increasing Child Benefit to €150 per month for the first and second child in last December's Budget. This was not done, either.
Elsewhere the manifesto promised "further responsible reductions in taxation". There's little sign of that.
Then there was the big idea, a "National Transformation Fund" to help finance "the most ambitious public capital programme in the history of the State". This would get its money from the sale of State assets, windfall gains to the Exchequer and "the excess foreign reserves of the Central Bank". It would have €6 billion to spend over the lifetime of the Government.
The Government's progress report published this week suggests this fund may indeed be established should there be any windfall gains from future privatisations. But there is no indication that it will raise anything like the funding proposed in the PD manifesto.
They also said they would keep the General Government Balance close to balance, or in surplus, over the next five years. Now the Tánaiste has openly argued that a significant deficit be allowed in order to finance the capital spending that was going to be paid for out of the National Transformation Fund.
Overall, the implication by Ms O'Donnell that the PDs had not made promises on the scale made by Fianna Fáil is true. But the party shares responsibility for the unfulfilled pledges in the Programme for Government, and has sole responsibility for the making of promises in its own manifesto that have not been kept.