A non-story courtesy of RTE.ie
Monday, February 19th, 2007RTÉ.ie had been leading with this story until a few minutes ago and it is probably one of the least relevant pieces I’ve seen there in a while.
The top line states:
The Minister of Finance, Brian Cowen, has said the Government’s policy on stamp duty was agreed between the coalition partners at the time of the Budget last December and will remain unchanged.
Why is this an issue? Even when McDowell threw his stamp duty kite in the air in late November / early December he said it was to be a manifesto pledge for the next election and not a PD pre-condition for that year’s Budget.
On top of that, the current Government has already published its final Budget, with Stamp Duty reform extremely unlikely to come completely independently of this at a later date. On top of this, with just 90 days until the next general election (as McDowell pointed out) the Government is certainly not going to put forward new legislation on the issue and in doing so wipe it out as a platform in the coming months… In fact, I’d bet the last thing the PDs would want is for any stamp duty reform to be made law before the people go to the polls later this year. Their initial suggestion of it had been so positively received when it was put forward last year, and it is one of the main columns of their attempt to remain significant in the 30th Dáil.
To me, if there is any news in this article, it comes in the fourth paragraph:
He refused to state whether or not he supported Mr McDowell’s proposals on stamp duty and tax cuts and said suggestions like these were part and parcel of the party conference before an election.
Given his attack on Pat Rabbitte after Labour announced its tax cut plan last week, it’s significant that he is not accusing McDowell of being “irresponsible” on taxation, especially when you consider the fact that the PD tax policy goes further than Labour’s does.
To me, this refusal to comment on the PD policy is a careful softening of tone from Fianna Fail, who now see themselves isolated as the only major player (besides the Greens… and their conference is this weekend) not to support a cut in the standard tax rate. If the PDs and FG are in favour of it, and the party most likely to lift votes from them, Labour, are too, where does that leave “the party of the people”, FF? And why has no-one asked Cowen or Bertie this?
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