FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny yesterday sought to assure those representing the unemployed that they had nothing to fear from a single-party Fine Gael government cutting welfare payments because the party’s priority was to get people back to work.
Mr Kenny said concerns expressed by the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed and trade union groups that a single-party Fine Gael government would not be good for those on social welfare were misplaced.
“I do not share the concerns of the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed – the answer to social welfare is work and jobs and employment. Many of those who I am meeting and who are on the Live Register are unemployed people who want to work.”
However, Mr Kenny did confirm that Fine Gael would introduce changes where people who were unemployed but who passed up on the opportunity to avail of further training would see their social welfare payments reduced.
“We have said that you have to have a difference between those who work and those who don’t and Fine Gael, in our pre-Christmas submission, set out our view of the areas that we would not cut back – disabled pensions, carers, the blind and those categories.”
Training schemes will be introduced with job and advancement opportunities for those who can work and are on “repeated social welfare” and these schemes will be offered to people with a view to helping them get a job, he said.
“If, after repeated opportunities, that they chose not to [avail of these training schemes], there would be a reduction in their social welfare payments amounting to about €10 a week by the end of the fourth year of a Fine Gael government.”
Mr Kenny said that the central focus of Fine Gael’s programme for government was jobs, and the party planned to help create jobs by moves such as abolishing the travel tax to boost tourist numbers, reduce employer PRSI and reduce VAT in certain areas.
“From our point of view, our plan is focused specifically on the unemployed to give them the opportunity and a chance to have work and rewarding careers,” he said, adding Fine Gael would also provide credit insurance schemes to allow small businesses to recruit more staff.
Mr Kenny, who was speaking during a visit to St John’s College in Cork, also played down suggestions of tensions between Fine Gael and the trade union movement, though he did stand over the party’s description of trade unions as “vested interests”.
Trade unions are obliged to look after their own members, but it was essential that they were willing to work with a party such as Fine Gael for the benefit of the country in terms of stimulating economic growth and creating employment, he said.
Mr Kenny said he had a good relationship with Ictu general secretary David Begg, and he was confident that the trade unions “have a real interest in working with us as we develop our own five-point programme to get Ireland working again”.
Asked whether the ongoing row with the Labour Party regarding their respective taxation proposals was likely to prevent the two parties from hammering out a coalition deal, Mr Kenny played down the acrimonious exchanges and said such issues would be decided by the people.
“I’m not having any row with the Labour Party – my comments and my conversations are with the Irish people – there’s something much more than bickering involved here – there’s a serious challenge for all our people, a serious challenge for our country.
“The Fine Gael message is really taking resonance with thousands of people who have contacted me in the last month and said ‘I like the way you are talking about jobs, the way you are pointing to the future and your commitment to being open and accountable’.
“I’m not interested in the Labour Party taking sniping shots from the sidelines – I’m far more interested in putting our case to the people and asking them for their support for the five-point programme we have that will put our country back to work.”
During a canvass in the English Market in the city, Mr Kenny was confronted by an anti-blood sports campaigner who took issue with the party’s proposal in its manifesto to lift the ban on stag hunting introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition.
John Carmody of Animal Rights Action Network, carrying a placard and with his hands painted red, challenged Mr Kenny.
“Please don’t reverse the ban – you will have blood on your hands. Shame on you. Ireland needs to move on from an era of cruelty,” he said.
