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Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil trade blows over policy costs

Fine Gael Director of Organisation Paschal Donohoe hit out at Fianna Fáil's manifesto promises
Fine Gael Director of Organisation Paschal Donohoe hit out at Fianna Fáil's manifesto promises

Fine Gael has branded the Fianna Fáil's General Election manifesto as an uncosted work of fiction that will have a disastrous impact on the country.

Fine Gael’s Director of Organisation, Paschal Donohoe, said the party is not explaining how it would cover public service pay over the next five years.

He said that Fianna Fáil had not set aside sufficient money to give hard-working public and civil servants a pay rise.

Mr Donohoe claimed that the true facts have been exposed and the old Fianna Fáil has not gone away.

However, the Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin has defended his party’s manifesto saying it is ''fiscally the most prudent and responsible of all the parties". 

He said the party had been more cautious than others and had presented more realistic and credible spending plans. 

Mr Martin acknowledged that the manifesto was ''ambitious'', but he said it had to be, given the challenges in housing and health. 

He said Fine Gael have presented a manifesto which commits to wholesale promises which he said they had already made and failed to deliver four years ago.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, meanwhile, has described the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael manifestos as "uninspiring" and said they represent more of the same.

Ms McDonald also said the two parties are "fudging" the pensions issue.

She said Sinn Féin is the only party that will guarantee the State pension is paid at 65 years of age.


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Ms McDonald also said she is glad she will be part of the RTÉ debate with seven party leaders on Monday.

However, she said RTÉ and Virgin had made a mistake by excluding Sinn Féin from the TV debates between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin, and people were telling her that on the campaign trail.

Elsewhere, the Labour Party promised today that it would link annual increases in social welfare rates, income tax credits and bands to increases in the rate of inflation, with a minimum annual increase of €5 per week in social welfare payments.

The party says it would introduce net tax increases of €400 million per year for additional investment in public services.

Additional reporting Fran McNulty and Samantha Libreri