Irish Examiner view: Tánaiste is right to warn of external shocks as Trump names his cabinet
Of Trump’s Merce Surplus Which Has Expense Picture: Ceo Adam Says Fitzgerald He Us Trade At Ireland's Gray/bloomberg/getty Targeted Of Selection The Secretary, Lutnick, Es Cantor The Howard Donald
The round of manifesto launches and policy briefings continues apace in the election campaign.
There seems to be no shortage of announcements specifying the detail of what each party will do on assuming power, with all the accompanying sniping at the plans and policies of all other parties.
And all the accompanying promises to spend vast sums on the electorate.
On Thursday, outgoing Tánaiste Micheál Martin appeared on the Irish Examiner podcast to discuss issues which are being raised on doorsteps with candidates of all stripes.
In his comments, he referred to US president-elect Donald Trump’s selection of commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, who is no fan of the tax breaks enjoyed by US firms in Ireland.
The appointment, he said, put all parties’ manifestos in a new light: “All manifestos are predicated on the existing economic assumptions that the Department of Finance has published.
This is a reasonable if obvious observation. The pandemic was an unprecedented event, for instance, but the country adapted in order to deal with it.
Mr Lutnick’s appointment may not prove to be good news for Ireland’s future corporation tax revenues, but it is to be hoped that the Department of Finance is in a position to plan for the possibility of those revenues falling.
One complicating factor is not an external shock but an internal challenge. The famous Apple tax windfall of over €13bn is proving hard to resist for political parties in this election campaign, with all of them eager to put the funds to work in projects of various kinds.
It is worth pointing out, that just last month, Finance Minister Jack Chambers said it was the Government’s view that those funds should be used to address “the known challenges that we face in housing, energy, water, and transport infrastructure”.
If the likely appointment of Mr Lutnick in the US heralds an era of reduced corporation tax, it might be prudent to set aside some of that Apple revenue.
However, prudence may not be a selling point on the doorsteps of Ireland over the course of the next week.
Cork County Council’s ambitious plans for a greenway system in the west of the county received a sharp rebuke this week.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA), following a meeting with council officials, expressed their concerns about the proposed greenway routes, stressing their wish for those routes to avoid private property in favour of public lands. The IFA stated that the routes could cause disruption for farmers and also pointed to privacy and litter problems which could arise, as well the possibility of disease being spread.
The ambition shown by Cork County Council here is considerable — greenways are proposed from Cork to Kinsale, in the Bandon area, and in three separate sections further west again — Skibbereen to Baltimore, Skibbereen to Schull, and Skibbereen to Drimoleague — and with such an extensive network there is every chance someone will be inconvenienced at some point. Clearly, if a greenway route is grossly invasive, then alternatives should be sought.
However, longer greenways than those proposed for Cork have been built all over Ireland and have become huge successes in their communities.
The Waterford Greenway is a shining example of how such a project can be transformative for an entire area — bolstering local businesses and increasing footfall in an environmentally friendly way.
It is reasonable to presume that concerns similar to those raised by the IFA about the Cork proposals were also aired before the Waterford project began. It is certainly true that the Waterford Greenway did not meet with unanimous approval in the early planning stage, which may have been conveniently forgotten as it became more and more successful: It attracted 250,000 visitors in its first year and over 280,000 in each of the following two years.
The IFA’s scepticism about this project looks narrow-minded and obstructive, particularly given the potential benefits for remote parts of the country. If there is goodwill on both sides and an openness to compromise there is surely a way to progress these greenways and benefit entire communities.
John Prescott, who was deputy prime minister in Tony Blair’s government in Britain, has died at the age of 86.
Prescott had a long and successful career in politics — he was a British Labour MP for four decades and a pugnacious debater who enjoyed the verbal sparring with Tory opponents in the House of Commons. However, he will probably be best remembered for an encounter in the 2001 British election which may resonate with many of those canvassing at present all over Ireland.
On a visit to Rhyl, Wales, during the campaign, Prescott was walking past a group of people when a man suddenly hit him in the head with an egg. Prescott immediately punched the man in retaliation, and the two grappled briefly before being separated. The encounter was caught on camera and was widely publicised, but the general reaction was one of sympathy for Prescott, who had been assaulted without warning and had clearly reacted in self-defence.
Prescott himself said later that when he met Blair after the incident he had the perfect response: “You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did.”