Mary Lou McDonald denies Sinn Féin policies would plunge country into deficit
Proposals Were Leader Sinn Taxation And Said Mary Lou Féin's Sensible, Sinn Mcdonald Balanced, Fair Féin
Mary Lou McDonald has refuted claims Sinn Féin is promising the electorate snap solutions to the complex issues being raised on the doorsteps.
The party leader sought to defend its manifesto and the proposals set out in it against criticism levelled at it by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that it promised quick fixes and would plunge the country into a deficit.
In a testy interview on RTÉ Radio One's , Ms McDonald denied the party's plan to narrow the tax base would penalise young people, forcing them to work longer in order to bridge the gap.
Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin's taxation proposals were balanced, sensible, and fair but when pressed for details on how it would fund increased investment while also taking €45,000 of every worker's income out of the USC, halting the increase of carbon tax and abolishing the local property tax, she was unable to provide firm figures.
It was put to the Dublin TD on a number of occasions that the plans laid out in the election manifesto would result in the country running a deficit if current economic forecasts were to change.
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"We are not left with the deficit. I have said that several times, our programme does not create a deficit," Ms McDonald said in a particularly tense moment.
"As a matter of fact, we end up running a surplus every year over the five-year term of government to the tune of €15bn."
Ms McDonald consulted notes when asked how the party would pay for the proposed compensation for all those who purchased defective homes but eventually said the plan would see €1bn of the Apple tax added to the €2.5bn already allocated by the government but added that "we accept it may cost more than that".
Responding to a warning from Micheál Martin the incoming Trump administration could see all parties having to re-evaluate their spending plans, Ms McDonald warned against creating doomsday scenarios before Mr Trump had taken office, saying it "should not be an automatic assumption of conflict and of negative fallout".