Fine Gael’s and Labour’s offers to fast-track the draconian Finance Bill is utterly cynical and opportunistic.
That is according to Conor MacLiam, socialist party candidate in the upcoming general election. Mr MacLiam held his campaign launch in Kytelers Inn in the city last week and MEP Joe Higgins was in attendance.
Mr MacLiam in a statement to the Kilkenny Advertiser said, that the Labour Party and Fine Gael were asking a discredited Government to do their dirty work for them in advance of an election.
He said, “the Finance Bill should be postponed until after the general election to allow a thorough public debate on it. I do not believe the Irish people support the draconian measures contained in it, which force ordinary people to pay for the IMF/EU stitch-up. Why should the likes of the low-paid, unemployed, carers, students and blind people pay the debts of the banks, developers and stock exchange gamblers?
“There is an enormous store of wealth still in the hands of the fantastically wealthy few – let’s start with a serious wealth tax before we touch the services, wages, benefits, allowances or grants essential to the welfare of those in the low and middle income brackets,” he pointed out.
Mr MacLiam added that the contents of the Finance Bill should be the main issue at the heart of the debate during the General Election campaign.
“In this way all political parties would be forced to lay out their proposals in a way that is clearly seen by the voters,” he concluded.
