U-Turns List

Bondholders Is it Labours way or Frankfurt way Eamon Gilmore; Fine Gael in Government will force certain classes of bondholders to share in the cost of recapitalising troubled financial institutions Manifesto. In government, they refuse to impose losses on the 3.5 billion of unsecured, unguaranteed senior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS).

Third Level Fees Labour is opposed to third-level fees by either the front or back doors Gilmore. Now Quinn refuses to rule out increased student fees in the future.

Student Services Charge Quinn signed a USI election pledge to reverse the 500 increase in the Student Services Charge in Budget 2011. Refused to do so once in Government, and wont rule out increases to it in the future.

Recapitalisation Varadkar said that not another red cent would be put into the banks. The Central Bank announced in March 2011 that the banks would require 24bn. 19bn of this will be met by the taxpayer by July 2011.

Bank Directors Pledged to re-structure boards and replace and directors who presided over failed lending practices. BOI appointed 4 pre-2008 directors; AIB has 3 non-exec directors still in place; Irish Life and Permanent still has one.

Force Banks to Cut their Interest Rates The Programme for Government promised that banks in receipt of state support would be forced to forego a 25 basis point increase on their variable rate mortgage. Despite cuts by the ECB to interest rates, NIB is pressing ahead with raising rates, and other banks are refusing to lower theirs.

Mortgages Interest Relief The Programme for Government has a commitment to abolish mortgage interest relief for new buyers from June this year in order to finance an increase in relief for those who bought their homes from 2004-2008. Now Michael Noonan says it is unlikely that any measures will be introduced before Budget 2012.

Sell the EBS During the election Fine Gael pledged to sell EBS. EBS has now been merged with AIB.

Medium Term Loans to Irish Banks Michael Noonan We need medium-term facilities from the ECB so that the liquidity problems in the Irish banks are not addressed on a fortnightly basis with a rollover of the liquidity funding every two weeks. It now appears this is not going to happen The ECB rejected it.

The EU-IMF Deal The EU/IMF deal was a bad deal for Ireland. ( Eamon Gilmore), a disaster and an obscenity (Micheal Noonan) After election: Eamon Gilmore said: It was never going to be the case that the renegotiation of the agreement was something that was going to be done in one great big bang.

Income Tax FG 5 point plan: No new taxes including no income tax increases Minister Noonan: I am not going to rule out any tax initiative, or any tax increase or any tax reduction.

Universal Social Charge The PfG states: We will review the Universal Social Charge. No review now forthcoming; Noonan robustly defends the levy in the Dail saying the universal social charge is progressive. He added: It is hard to argue that is regressive; that is one of the more progressive taxes one will find.

Budget 2011

FG & Lab voted against Budget 2011. Now it seems theyre only too happy to take ownership of the budget and boast about the adjustments that have been achieved to date.

More Pay Cuts to Public Servants They opposed the public sector pension levy It is a crude and unfair system. (Brendan Howlin) Now they wont rule out more cuts to public service pay.

Jobs Budget FG promised a Jobs Budget within 100 days. The jobs budget then became a mere revenue neutral jobs initiative, with no jobs target.

Getting People Back to Work FG Election Slogan: Lets Get Ireland Working Latest Live Register figures show unemployment stagnant the jobs initiative failed, the New Era jobs didnt materialise, and the Medium Term Fiscal Statement acknowledges unemployment will rise next year.

New Era Jobs Enda Kenny boasted that New Era plan will create over 105,000 jobs. At its launch in Sept, there was no mention of jobs it would create, and no mention of cost.

New Era Funding The Programme for Government and the Fine Gael manifesto state that it would funded through the sale of state assets. However, the EU/IMF agreement clearly states - It is important to make effective use of our state assets and, where appropriate, dispose of them to help reduce our government debt.

State Assets Programme for Government: We will target up to 2 billion in sales of nonstrategic state assets. It now looks like up to 5bn of assets, strategic or otherwise, will be sold.

Strategic Investment Bank

The Programme for Government states we will establish a Strategic Investment Bank. Kenny, September 2011: A Strategic Investment Bank would be difficult to implement in current market conditions.

Upward Only Rent Reviews The Programme for Govt states: We will legislate to end upward only rent reviews for existing leases. Each time the Justice Minister has been asked about it, hes fudged the issue.

Protecting the Low Paid Labour Manifesto pledged to reform JLCs in a way that protects the most vulnerable workers. Jobs Minister Richard Bruton is dragging his feet on introducing a reformed JLC system, leaving workers vulnerable since July.

Competition & Consumer Protection FG Manifesto: Promised a new powerful consumer champion, giving it additional powers by constitutional change if necessary to break up public and private sector monopolies and cartels. No mention of this in Competition Bill 2011, and no commitment to constitutional change.

Ban on Corporate Donations The Programme for Government clearly states we will introduce the necessary legal and constitutional provisions to ban corporate donations to political parties. The Bill allows corporate donations to continue and Enda Kenny has confirmed that there will be no constitutional ban put to the people.

Severance Pay for Senior Civil Servants There will be no more golden handshakes for public servants that have failed to deliver. Big payoffs for senior civil servants continue.

Reducing the number of TDs FG had previously promised to reduce the number of TDs by 20 The Electoral Act proposes a cut of as little as 6 TDs.

Constitution Day Enda Kenny, April 2011: We will set out a programme to allow for a series of constitutional amendments to be decided on what we called Constitution day, to be held within 12 months of the new Government being formed. Little mention of it since

The Seanad Both parties pledged to abolish the Seanad. There was no mention in the legislative agenda of legislation to scrap the Seanad.

Child Benefit During the election campaign Eamon Gilmore identified child benefit as a red line issue. Labours Every Little Hurts" advertising campaign lambasted Fine Gael for their proposed cuts in the child benefit rates Joan Burton has since refused to give an explicit commitment on child benefit rates.

Social Welfare Rates The Programme for Government clearly states We will maintain social welfare rates Joan Burton has continuously refused to give an explicit commitment on headline rates.

National Educational Psychological Service Ruairi Quinn promised to provide 3m to reverse the cut in the National Educational Psychological Service. He has made no mention of this commitment since then

Water Charges & Utility Charges Labour previously said they would be opposed to the introduction of flat rate water charges A flat water charge is not something that were going to introduce. The government has now admitted that two charges are on the way by 2013, a flat rate household utility charge (by 2012) and water charges.

Household Charge

Were not in favour of a tax on the family home Gilmore July 2011: Phil Hogan announced the introduction of a 100 flat rate household charge which is to be applied to the 1.6 million households in the country.

Irish Water Fine Gaels plans for the setting up of a new water company introducing water charges featured heavily in its New Politics policy document published in March 2010. However, FG has now admitted that they have no plan for the setting up of this company, no idea of the timeline involved and have also admitted that there are significant legal and administrative changes involved in transferring water services from local authorities to the new water company.

Stag Hunting FG Manifesto p27: Fine Gael will reverse the ban on stag hunting; Junior Minister Shane McEntee (Meath East) told the Seanad on 25th Oct that legislation reversing the ban was forthcoming. 8th Nov Kenny spokesperson: McEntee was expressing an opinion and there was no commitment to reverse the ban.

Turf Cutting Fine Gael Manifesto: It is premature to cease the cutting of turf for domestic purposes in 2011; Roscommon TD Frank Feighan said he would sign in his own blood the future of turf-cutting. 27th Sept: Deenihan signs regulations making turf cutting on Special Areas of Conservation a criminal offence, and allows for the confiscation of turf cutting machinery.

Climate Change Programme for Government: We will publish a Climate Change Bill. This was dropped by Phil Hogan in November 2011.

Garda Numbers Shatter said in December 2010 that a reduction in Garda numbers would obstruct the battle against crime The job of this Government is to reduce public expenditure, not to increase it. That is as applicable across the justice sector as it is in other sectors.

Triple Lock FG manifesto: We believe that the Triple Lock must be modified to allow Ireland participate in peacekeeping missions. The failure of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution should not prevent us from taking part in overseas missions. Shatter: As matters stand the triple lock remains part and parcel of Govt. policy.

Government Jet FG Manifesto: We will introduce a new code of practice for the use of the government jet ensuring cost effective and transparent travel. To stamp out any abuse, cheaper commercial alternatives must be taken when possible. Transport spokesperson Simon Coveney said last year: Jets were being abused by Ministers. Oct 2011: Jet had been used 24 times at a total cost to the taxpayer of almost 14m, including a trip to Cork for the Taoiseach and a trip to Algeria for Coveney.

Junior Ministers FG pledged they would cut the number of junior Ministers to 12. Once elected they appointed 15 Junior Ministers.

Quangos Fine Gael pledged to abolish 145 quangos in their document Reinventing Government. By end Oct 2011, they had abolished 5, but had created 8.

Guillotining of Legislation Enda Kenny, July 2010: I do not accept the Governments guillotining of Bills in any shape or form. By November 2011 they had guillotined almost a dozen Bills.

Staff in Constituency Offices FG pledged to reduce ministerial staff allocated to work on constituency matters to two per Minister In March 2011 it was announced that ministers will keep 4 staff each in their constituency office.

Constituency Work

Enda Kenny promised to direct all Ministers to focus entirely on their new portfolios in the first 100 days and completely avoid constituency work. However, Kenny himself repeatedly broke this promise with dozens of appointments in Mayo every week.

Ministers Advisors Ministerial advisors will be subject to salary caps Most Ministers advisors have breached the cap.

Cronyism They promised an end to cronyism and transparency in board appointments. FG & Labour members and donors have been appointed as Judges and to the boards of Quangos.

Transparency in Appointments FG and Lab Manifestos: They promised vetting of appointments to state boards by the Oireachtas. Party political appointments have been made, without any oversight or transparency. In October 2011, they appointed the former head of AIB Investment Management as head of the New Era quango, without revealing her pay or conditions.

Freedom of Information Programme for Government promised to legislate to restore the Freedom of Information Act. No commitment for when legislation will be published on this.