Labour in Govt to review NAMA operation
Issued : Friday 16 April, 2010
Statement by Eamon Gilmore TD
Leader of the Labour Party, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade
Labour to seek three way leaders debate
Welcome to Galway! And to what is one of the most important conferences that Labour has held in recent times.
Since we last met in conference, in Mullingar, Labour has made enormous strides. We have had the most successful local and European elections in our history. Our membership continues to increase. And we have an encouraging and sustained level of public support.
What this conference is about, is building on those gains. We now have a new platform, on which to build the party, to bring Labour up to new levels. To break out of the old pattern of Irish politics - changing the assumptions, challenging the status quo.
Our country is in the deepest economic crisis in our history, and the people of Ireland are crying out for change. We have a broken, battered, hopeless Government, who have long since lost the confidence of the Irish people.
Our work, Labour's work, is to provide the Irish people, with real change. We are not in the business of business as usual. What Labour is offering the Irish people is the opportunity for a fundamental change in ideas, in energy, in priorities, in values, and in the way Government itself is conducted.
Our core messages of jobs, reform, and fairness, have been resonating with the Irish people, who have long since lost any sense of trust in Fianna Fáil.
Again and again, it has been shown that Labour has been right on the economy.
When Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach, we warned him that the economy was in trouble, but he did nothing.
We were the first to point up the fact that the banks had stopped lending money.
We were the only party - the only party - to vote against the blanket guarantee for the banks. It was criticised at the time, but we have been proven correct, because it is that decision - that fateful decision - that has had the taxpayer on the backfoot ever since. Issuing that guarantee and including Anglo in it, has led to one policy disaster after another.
Again and again, we have made the right judgements calls.
We were first party to call for temporary nationalisation of the banks - not a popular stance, but the only way to minimise the cost of the banking crisis to the taxpayer. Again, we have been proven correct. Now the banks are being nationalised by default, but in a way that is slower, more expensive and more damaging to the economy.
We argued that the NAMA business plan was a fantasy. Brian Lenihan has now effectively admitted that we were right, when he had finally had to admit that the bad loans he is buying are worth far less than he originally said.
What we have seen, what we have lived through, is a gross betrayal of the Irish people, by a party, so arrogant, so intoxicated with greed, that they put the interests of the special interests, before the interests of the nation.
And they have refused to allow the proper enquiry into the banking crisis that Labour has demanded, and that we have proposed in the Dáil. They refuse point blank to have their own actions subjected to scrutiny.
Let me be quite clear about this. Labour in Government will insist that there is a full and comprehensive enquiry into the causes of the banking disaster, including the events of September 2008 and the decision to give a blanket guarantee to all the banks, including Anglo. The public has a right to know the full story of why such a catastrophic decision was taken. Because we have to ensure that such a mistake never happens again.
And let me be clear too, about how we will approach NAMA, a supposed solution that we opposed at every stage. NAMA is a hugely expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic adventure. It is a fee-fest for some of the very people who were involved in creating this mess in the first place. That is likely to contribute to on-going paralysis in the Irish economy. When Labour gets into Government we will review the entire NAMA project. We may be bound by the legal agreements entered into by Fianna Fáil, but we will put NAMA under a microscope of transparency. There will be no sweet-heart deals. There will be no safe haven for developers.
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The theme of our conference this weekend is One Ireland. It is a call to unity and solidarity. It is a call to equality. Equality of sacrifice now, and a more equal Ireland in the future. It is an agenda for putting the needs and concerns of the Irish people, back at the heart of Government.
The core elements are jobs, reform, and fairness.
Jobs, because, throughout this economic crisis, Labour has repeated and repeated the argument that the core issue is jobs. Every extra job lost is one fewer person paying taxes and one more being supported by social welfare. Every person who finds a job is another person contributing to the exchequer and spending in the economy. I welcome the prediction of the ESRI this week that we may see some recovery in the economy next year. But what they are predicting is jobless growth. Unemployment static, and 100,000 people leaving the country in two years. For the people of Ireland, recovery will only be meaningful when we start seeing jobs being created.
Labour has been to the forefront in bringing forward innovative ideas to create jobs. A Strategic Investment Bank, that will invest both in innovative companies and in the infrastructure that they need. Labour's Jobs Fund to finance initiatives that will create and sustain employment. A range of innovative ideas for training and upskilling. There will be further ideas discussed at this conference, as we continue to build our platform for the next election.
Reform, because this is the second time in a generation that Fianna Fáil have brought this country to the verge of bankruptcy, and foisted the pain onto the backs of the young and those who can least afford it. Again, Labour has been at the forefront in demanding change. It is a year ago today that Labour published 'Never Again' a document setting out eight areas where reform was needed to strengthen our democracy, and clean up crony capitalism. Yet, when we have brought these proposals before the Dáil, Fianna Fáil have voted them down.
Fairness, because that is what Labour is all about. That is why we were founded. Not targeting this group, or that group. But pulling people, together, so that we can pull though. If we are to get through this crisis, then we must do so as one Ireland. And when we do, we must stay one Ireland. Where there is one health system for One Ireland. Where housing is not a chip in a casino game, but a basic human need. Where we finally live up to the aspiration of this Republic, that every child has an education that makes them free.
That is our mission. That is our vision. Our work this weekend is to further develop our policies and our organisation, to take that vision to the Irish people and to win.
As we look across Europe, we see an economic crisis brought on by the failed ideology of the market dogmatists. The task that we face as European socialists, is to construct an alternative vision, to campaign on it, and to win. Our contribution to that task has been greatly strengthened by our success in the European elections. Our colleague Prionsias de Rossa has been joined by Alan Kelly and Nessa Childers. I want to thank them for the work they have been doing.
And I want to welcome here to Galway, the representatives of our sister party, the SDLP. As you know, there is a crucial election taking place in the UK, including Northern Ireland. I want our SDLP colleagues to know that they have our good wishes and our support. We are grateful to Mark Durkan for his leadership and his work, and we wish his successor, Margaret Richie well. For all that Northern Ireland has progressed in recent years, and there has been progress, as events this week have shown, we cannot take that progress for granted. The fact remains that there is still one voice In Northern Ireland that stands now, as it has always stood, for peace and democracy and against sectarianism and division. And that is our sister party, the SDLP.
British elections are always followed with great interest in this country and this will be particularly so for this election when the outcome is expected to be close. Many people will have watched, as I did, the televised leaders debate last night. I thought it was public service broadcasting at its best and there will be a number of other debates between now and polling day.
The Leaders were given time to explain their positions on issues of interest to the electorate and to debate the differences between them. But what is particularly significant was that British broadcasters insisted on the inclusion of the Leader of the Liberal Democrats and that the Labour and Tory parties agreed to this.
I now want to put Irish broadcasters and Fianna Fail and Fine Gael on notice that we will be seeking a similar three way leaders debate for our own general election. Depending on what poll you read, there is no more than about twelve percentage points covering the support for Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour. This roughly similar to the spread covering the three main parties in the U.K.
Labour will be contesting the next general election as an independent party seeking a mandate to lead the next government. The political landscape in this country has changed. Irish politics is now a three horse race and the Labour Party will not accept any attempt by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or RTE to relegate us into some sort of second division.
We will use every measure possible to ensure that we are given an opportunity to put our case to the Irish people on the same basis as other parties.
You know one aspect of the British election that amuses me is that you have one political party selling the message that conservatism is a form of change.
Well, in Ireland, we know all about conservatism, and where it gets you.
Fianna Fáil are the Green Tories. They have shown the world what kind of economy you get, when you combine free-market ideology with a dose of good old fashioned gombeenism. You get crony capitalism on a grand scale. You get Seanie FitzPatrick, and a 73 billion euro bill for a failed banking system. You get a Government that decides to guarantee the banks for three times our national income, and refuses to allow their actions to be investigated.
And despite all of their failings, still they have learnt nothing. They still stick to the failed dogmas of right-wing ideology. Again and again, we are told, that sure, the rich can't be asked to pay their fair share. Ireland must be the only country in the world where being wealthy means you don't have any money. Instead, it is the poor who are asked to pay.
It is never the bankers, or the property developers, or the insiders who pay the price. It's the 250,000 people who have lost their jobs. It's the young unemployed, who once again are leaving this country in droves. It's the families left behind, looking at the vacant place at the kitchen table, and wondering what the future holds for the next child when they leave school.
Fianna Fáil politics is beggar-my-neighbour politics. It is the politics of division. The politics of targeting particular groups in society, to protect the interests of the wealthy. As though it was the young unemployed, who are responsible for the jobs crisis. As though, it was young families with children who made all those toxic loans . As though it was Gardai and nurses, not bankers and property developers who created the banking crisis.
That approach simply won't work. First of all, because it doesn't add up. You cannot impose the full burden of Fianna Fáil's failure, on this group or that group in society.
We have had enough false economics built on false promises from Fianna Fáil. As a country, we know that resources are going to be tight for some years to come. If a politician tries to tell you that he will not increase taxes, then they are not telling the truth. Taxes are already going up. The issue is who pays them. Labour has been clear for years, that the core issue in taxation is fairness. That every one must pay their fair share. Something that has been repeated many times by our spokesperson Joan Burton.
Ireland is a small country. We simply cannot afford the kind of social division that Fianna Fáil is feeding.. We cannot afford the coarsening of public debate, that Fianna Fáil are fanning to cover for the consequences of their own failings. We cannot afford the hands-off leave it to the market ideology of Fianna Fáil.
Labour's task is to lead change. It won't be easy. There is work to do.
This conference is not about consolidation. This conference is about building further support. Developing our thinking and our organisation, so that we return to our constituencies, with the energy and the message, that Labour is ready to lead.
On every seat in this hall, is a short booklet, summarising some of the main themes of our recent policy papers. Take it home. Read it. And get out on the doorsteps and campaign for it.
This is a moment of great crisis, but also one of opportunity. To build a better future for our country. Lets put our heads together this weekend to shape and refine our message. Lets leave here on Sunday, go back to our constituencies, our towns, our neighbourhoods and places of work, and proudly promote Labour as the agent of change for a new Ireland. One Ireland.
