Keep dodging the issue Raven.
You sold your sporting soul to a gang of 16 year old hooligans.
You sold your political soul to a party that sold out socialism once it had sold out republicanism.
Are you happy to support Sinn Fin’s revised stance on bin charges and corporation tax?
Funny that’s what Mary Lou said yesterday when she was asked about the corporation tax. She didn’t know the answer bless her.
Drifting to the right for votes…
They used to be against bin charges - they’re no longer opposed to them
They wanted to increase corporation tax to 17.5 or 20%. They now don’t want to do this.
Hilarious Raven. The party growing and developing is charging to the right, overtaking Labour in the process.
The Green Party are not a hierarchical organisation so Trevor has no say on any candidate’s chosen mode of transport.
Left__________________________________________________________________Right
SWP/Socialist Party____Greens________Labour/SF______FF_______FG________PD’s_
Well said
Any time I have seen the Irish Independent since the election was called they have a gloom looking picture of Bertie on the front (see today’s par example) and some sort of victorious picture of Kenny somewhere inside.
It’s hardly independent reporting…
No there’s nothing independent about them… they’ve always been pro-FG.
That said FF are having a terrible campaign so far. They launched their manifesto today at a press conference dominated by Vincent Browne firing questions at Bertie about the 30k he and/or Celia received from Michel Wall. Then they announced stamp duty reforms (despite their reluctance to do so in the past) and when Noel Dempsey was pressed on this u-turn on policies on RT he got a convenient technical issue.
I think stamp duty is a decent tax personally. By that I mean for property speculators / developers who make personal fortunes from their many and varied property deals rather than penalising, if that’s the right word, first time buyers. I think the timing of the u-turn today is reflective of the poor start of their campaign - first time buyers’ stamp duty only accounts for a very small percentage of total stamp duty revenue when you take into account the price the likes of office sites in Dublin 4 are going for yet still the change wasn’t considered in the budget. Now they’ve taken a bit of a hammering over the last few days and before you know it, the change is announced and stamp stamp duty is gone…providing they’re re-elected!
I think it’s just abolition for first time buyers - I’ve not read anything for others. They are backdating their adjustments to 30th April though so there’s no advantage in holding off if it’s a FF government.
I think stamp duty is a decent tax personally. By that I mean for property speculators / developers who make personal fortunes from their many and varied property deals rather than penalising, if that’s the right word, first time buyers. I think the timing of the u-turn today is reflective of the poor start of their campaign - first time buyers’ stamp duty only accounts for a very small percentage of total stamp duty revenue when you take into account the price the likes of office sites in Dublin 4 are going for yet still the change wasn’t considered in the budget. Now they’ve taken a bit of a hammering over the last few days and before you know it, the change is announced and stamp stamp duty is gone…providing they’re re-elected!
Good post Bandage. I don’t have an issue with stamp duty but I do think the bands should have been index linked to house price inflation, because they became more penalising than they were designed to be.
That said removing stamp duty for first time buyers is a strange move - it suits developers and not many others. I see SF are against the move for those very reasons.
This from rte.ie
I don’t like Browne (pompous prick) but at least he asks the questions
It was supposed to be Fianna Fil’s big campaign launch: a manifesto intended to win the voters.
Journalists at the news conference, like RT Radio presenter Vincent Browne, preferred to focus on questions about the Taoiseach’s finances.
‘The problem about this money that you got from Michel Wall is, that it ain’t credible that it was for the purpose of the renovation of a house’, Mr Browne told the Taoiseach.
AdvertisementInitially, Mr Browne was stopped by a Fianna Fil representative, at which point he recalled 20 years ago when he claims journalists were obstructed from asking former party leader Charles Haughey questions.
‘I hope Fianna Fil has changed and we won’t be obstructed in doing so now’, Mr Browne added.
Eventually, Bertie Ahern addressed the issue at hand, one of the first times during this election campaign.
‘This has nothing to do with the tribunal’, Mr Ahern responded. ‘I allocated my money for uses and I’m entitled to do that. I earned the money.’
He added: ‘Are you questioning that I shouldn’t be allowed to use money?’
On the new RT programme Campaign Daily, Sunday Tribune political editor Kevin Rafter said this was a ‘really really bad morning for Fianna Fil.’
‘First of all, they were doing a u-turn on stamp duty’, commented Mr Rafter. ‘And then the Taoiseach was dogged again on the tribunals.’
He added that even though Mr Ahern answered a question, the issues are still hanging over him.
FF election manifesto
Before the questioning, Fianna Fil unveiled its election manifesto which included a promise to immediately abolish stamp duty for all first-time buyers.
The party has also promised to increase the mortgage interest relief for first-time buyers and those who have purchased their homes in the last seven years.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Ahern said that Fianna Fil’s proposals for the elimination of stamp duty for first-time buyers will not drive up house prices.
He said that the proposals were targeting the tax system so that money would not be going to sellers.
Mr Ahern said that to follow the proposals put forward by the other parties would create ‘a whole load’ of distortions in the housing market.
He said that Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, had always said that Fianna Fil would not make commitments about stamp duty ‘way out’ from an election campaign when it would have created instability.
Plan a ‘U-turn’
The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has described the plan as ‘a complete joke’ and ‘a massive U-turn’.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, Mr Kenny said Fianna Fil had been in office for ten years and had not acted. He said that as the election is beginning to slip away from the party, it has changed its mind.
On alleged payments to the Taoiseach, Mr Kenny described today’s developments as the latest in a series of bizarre comments by Mr Ahern.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said that if the campaign gets any worse for Fianna Fil, the party might propose backdating reform to 1994 and solve some of its other problems.
Sinn Fin party leader Gerry Adams described the proposal as subterfuge, saying that developers would simply increase prices as a result.
The party’s chairperson, Mary Lou McDonald said that Fianna Fil was engaging in ‘gimmick politics’, and that it pointed to the absence of a real housing policy. She said that her party favoured an approach based on tax incentives for first-time buyers.
More than 100 nurses protested at the Mansion House in Dublin at the launch of the Fianna Fil manifesto, as part of their campaign for a pay rise and shorter working hours
Looks like the FF/PD alliance is broken up. McDowell has learned of facts from Jody Corcoran (Sindo) that have shocked him and apparently he’s pulling out of support for FF.
I think this could be a tactic from PD’s to gain more votes. A more opportunistic man than McDowell you couldnt meet. From RTE.IE
PDs to discuss Ahern financial allegations
Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:50
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s financial affairs are to be the subject of a specially convened meeting of the leadership of the Progressive Democrats this afternoon.
The announcement of the meeting comes at the end of the first week of campaigning in the General Election that has been marked by debate over Mr Ahern’s personal affairs.
When asked if the current Government coalition was secure, Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell said all issues would be discussed at the meeting later.
AdvertisementHe said ‘we always discuss the future and rarely discuss the past’.
Mr Ahern has said he will deal with the issues at the Mahon Tribunal.
He re-iterated that the Mahon Tribunal was not investigating his personal finances, and that it was only looking into whether or not he received money from Eoin O’Callaghan and if he did anything about the designation of the land in question.
Mr Ahern said emphatically that the answer was no.
When asked about Mr McDowell’s comments that he needed to reflect on what has happened in the last few days, Mr Ahern said the Tnaiste ‘needed to do what he needed to do’.
There’s been rumours all week that the Sunday newspapers are going to have really damning revelations. I get the impression that certain journalists knew about certain stuff and have literally been saving it for the election campaign so that it’ll receive maximum publicity and attention as well as inflicting most damage on FF.
therock told me this morning that the Irish Mail On Sunday has pictures of Bertie Ahern and Angus Fanning of the Sunday Independent walking together last Saturday. They are saying that the SIndo were told to pull a story they had on Ahern by Anthony O’Reilly. therock also assured me orally that thefreekick will not hide behind the tribunal should they receive information which is in the public interest to publish.
Actually had a look at the Sindo today as all day yesterday we were told that there would be major revelations. Jody Corcoran had his awaited front page exclusive where he detailed how he met with one of Michael McDowell’s senior advisors and told him…nothing that wasn’t in the public domain already. What the fook is going on?
Christ it’s very hard to know what’s going on here.
Irrespective of what the Sunday Independent are now saying it’s clear that there is information in the hands of the PD’s, RT and other media outlets that directly contradicts Bertie Aherne’s public utterances on the house and gifts from Michael Wall.
Bertie said in public during the week that the money he received from Wall was for renovating the house and was given to Celia Larkin to use as a budget in the renovation project - i.e. it was nothing to do with Bertie, Wall just paid Larkin to decorate the house. Subsequent to this redecoration he bought the house from Wall at a commercial price.
It seems that:
There was clearly pressure put on the Sunday Independent to not publish the full story, as I was saying to the piper earlier - Fanning was photographed in discussions with Bertie last week.
thefreekick.com will not be silenced by any tribunal. When we find out the story we will publish it.
Who wants to know what the money was for? Don’t want to post it here yet but I’ll send it by PM? Piper - you know this already.
I wanna know. Give me the whole background.
PM sent to ya