McDowell hits back over tax attack
Justice Minister Michael McDowell tonight slammed a Fine Gael report which claimed the Government had added almost €9,000 a year to the average family tax bill.
Mr McDowell ridiculed the opposition party’s assertions that spending had doubled while crucial services were still not being delivered.
In a scathing attack he told a meeting of Cork Progressive Democrats that Fine Gael’s analysis was “utterly bogus” and “political cop-out on a grand scale.”
He said: “Rather than make a single specific taxation or spending proposal, Fine Gael have sought refuge in a thicket of meddlesome and cumbersome administrative proposals.”
The document, produced by Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton, claimed that while taxes had doubled from €21.6m in 1997 to €44.5m in 2004, the Government had “failed spectacularly” to deliver front line services where they were needed most.
Mr Bruton described budget day as a “charade” and said ministers should be made more accountable for their spending.
But despite identifying various areas where he claimed the Government had failed to budget properly, the report triggered a backlash for failing to outline exactly where spending should be cut.
Mr McDowell criticised Fine Gael’s audacity to suggest the Government was spending too generously when, at the last election, the opposition party pledged to spend considerably more.
He said: “There can be little surprise that they want us to forget the past. For Fine Gael’s past in government is a past where the party was tied to Labour.
“And when Fine Gael was tied to Labour, Ireland was tied to a doctrinaire and dogmatic view which hindered progress.”
The Justice Minister said since he became party leader, Enda Kenny had said virtually nothing of what he would do if trusted with government.
He claimed that while Fine Gael’s fate was tied to Labour’s they would always shirk away from real politics, opting instead to make “stunted” proposals.
“The danger of the current Fine Gael approach is that the party is seeking a mandate to govern without a mandate to do anything,” he added.
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also joined the fray, claiming that to say taxes had been squandered implied civil servants were not doing their job. “I think they are working hard,” he said. “We are an expanding country with high growth rates.
“It’s typical Fine Gael – they try every now and again and they are equally poor this time. It’s totally false.”
A Fine Gael spokesman said Mr McDowell would be better advised saving his combative energies for the ongoing rows he has with the judiciary and local government.
“The minister importantly did not contradict the fact that there has been massive waste of taxpayers money under this administration, that bureaucracies have been prioritised over front-line staff and that we are now definitively paying more tax than under the Rainbow Coalition,” he added.
