Labour’s manifesto 2011

Manifesto

2011

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Contents
Foreword	

2

Labour’s Action Plan for Ireland	

4

Jobs	
01	 Finance and Banking: A Better Deal for Ireland 	
02	 Fiscal Stability, Investment and Competitiveness	
03	 Enterprise and Innovation	
04	 A New Deal for Jobseekers	
05	 Growing the Green Economy	
06	Infrastructure for the 21st Century	
07	 Growing Jobs in Food, Agriculture and Fisheries	
08	 Growing Jobs in Tourism 	

7
8
12
18
23
26
30
34
37

Reform	
09	Reforming Politics	
10	 Reforming Government	
11	 Reforming Public Service	
12	 Reforming Social Protection	
13	 Reforming Policing and Justice	

41
42
45
49
52
55

Fairness	
59
14	 Fairness in Education	
60
15	 Labour’s Plan for Fair Health Care	
64
16	 Making Homes Matter	
68
17	 One Ireland for Children, Families & Older People	 72
18	 A Fairer and More Equal Ireland	
76
19	 Culture, Sport and the Arts	
80
20	 Foreign Affairs, the EU and Northern Ireland	
85

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Foreword

The Irish people have a
historic choice before them.
Together, on polling day, we 	
can vote to change the direction
of our country.
Ireland is a great country, with a great future. It is
also a country with grave problems. But nobody,
and especially ourselves, should ever doubt what
we are capable of. Our abilities are far greater then
our problems.

2

Our country’s best days are still 	
to come.
It is not enough to wish for a better
future. We have to grasp it and work
for it and on polling day we have to
come together and decide on change.
That is what this election is all about.
Real, transformative change that can
bring about the kind of Ireland we
want to live in, not just for ourselves,
for our children as well.
Change is nothing new for most
Irish people today. Most people have
already had to change their own
lives, out of necessity. They have 	
had to cope with job losses, 	
reduced incomes, and reduced 	
living standards.
Now we have the opportunity to
take control of that change, and to
take back our future.
For the first time ever in the 90
year history of this State, we can
elect a government which is led by
neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael.
For the first time people have a real
alternative – to elect a government
led by Labour.
This is not simply a choice of party
label. It is a choice about the future
direction of our country.
Only Labour can lead that change. A
change of government, and a change
in the way government works. A
change in the way government
thinks. A change that brings the real
concerns of the people to the heart
of government.

Labour will fight this election on three
issues that go to the heart of Ireland’s
challenge: jobs, reform, and fairness.

taxation. Alone among the political
parties, we will make literacy, not just
a policy objective but a national cause.

Throughout this crisis, Labour has
insisted that jobs must be at the
heart of what government is doing.
Labour is the party of work, and a
Labour-led government will have
jobs at the top of its agenda. We
will work to provide skills and work
experience opportunities for those
without work. We will work to
develop new opportunities through
trade and innovation, finding new
markets, and new goods and services
to sell in them. We will work on the
basis that every single job counts.

Labour’s vision is the vision of One
Ireland, where we are driven by what
unites us, not what divides us. Our
country is too small, and our problems
are too great, to indulge in divisions,
or solo-runs, or sectional interests.

Labour is the party of reform.
For generations, in and out of
government, Labour has championed
progressive change in Ireland. Now,
once again, we are determined to
lead a new wave of change, to fix a
broken system that has failed the
Irish people.
Labour is the party to reform politics
because we have the best track
record on reform. Labour is the Party
to reform our public services because
we believe in the value of public
service, and what its potential is.
Labour is the party of fairness. We
have led the way in showing how
the two-tier health system is bad for
all of us, and how it can be fixed. We
have lead the way in demanding fair

This is not the time for division or for
the politics of pitting one group of
Irish people against another. This is
the moment we must come together,
and move forward together – le chéile.
Government is not a hospitality tent,
roped off for VIPs. Government is
not a Big House shielded from the
people by high walls. Government
is not the business of the insiders, it
is the business of us all. It’s time to
roll up the tent, and put the concerns
of the people at the heart of
government. That is the belief that
has driven the Labour Party since its
foundation, right up to today. Labour
is ready to put that belief into action.
One Ireland. Private sector and public
sector. Those with jobs and those
looking for work. Employers and
employees. Rural and urban. Gay
and straight. Now is the time to pull
down the walls that stand between
the people and their government.
Now is the time for Labour.
Eamon Gilmore TD

Real, transformative change
that can bring about the
kind of Ireland we want to
live in, not just for ourselves,
for our children as well
3

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

We can, and we will get through
this recession. We can, and we will,
get our country on the road to
recovery, creating jobs and forging
opportunities for our future. We can,
and we will, change the way this
country is run and fix the system
that is broken.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour’s
Action Plan
for Ireland

4

Put jobs and growth first. That means renegotiating the EU-IMF deal to include a jobs
strategy, to share the debt burden with bondholders, to reduce the interest rate, and to
leave room for Ireland’s economy to grow.
Build on our strengths. Labour has specific plans for job creation in Ireland’s agri-food
industry, tourism, renewable energy, creative industries, clean technology, and retail; for
turning scientific research into jobs; and for developing new markets for Irish exports.
Invest in jobs and training. Labour’s €500 million Jobs Fund will fund new ideas to grow
jobs in strategic sectors of the economy, while our plan for a Strategic Investment Bank
will provide credit to grow businesses and build vital infrastructure. The Jobs Fund will
also provide 60,000 new education and training opportunities to help those out of
work to get back into employment.
Make next generation broadband happen. Labour’s plan brings together private sector
funding in an innovative co-op to build a high-speed, next generation broadband network.

REFORM

Change politics. Labour’s job in government is to serve the best interests of the Irish
people. Labour will abolish the Seanad, end cronyism on State boards, and make
Ministers and public servants accountable for their decisions.
A new Constitution. Labour will ask a people’s convention to draw up a new
Constitution setting out the aspirations, the values and the rules that Irish people want
to live by now.
Open up government. Labour will extend the right to Freedom of Information,
require political lobbyists to be publicly registered, and introduce legal protection for
whistleblowers.
Reform public service. Labour has a plan to make the public service more flexible, work
better, and to get better value for money.

FAIRNESS

Keep taxes fair and balanced. Under Labour in government, no one earning less than
€100,000 will pay more income tax. Labour’s plan to close the gap in our public finances
is split 50:50 between spending cuts and new revenue-raising measures.
A fairer, more affordable health system. Labour will reform the unfair two-tier health
system to reduce the cost of delivering care, and use those savings to extend universal
access to essential medical care. We will start by making access to primary care, 	
such as GPs, more affordable.
Make literacy a national cause. No child should leave school unable to read and write.
Labour has a plan to improve child literacy for the first time in a generation.
Equality is for everyone. Labour will hold a referendum on gay marriage rights.

5

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

JOBS

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

6

www.labour.ie/manifesto

jobs

7

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs

Finance and Banking:
A Better Deal for Ireland
Time for change

Ireland faces a profound economic crisis, but
while we have serious problems, we also have
major economic advantages. With the right
policies the economy can create jobs and
return our country to prosperity.

01

The first steps
•	 R
 enegotiate the EU/IMF Deal to re-focus on
growth and job creation	
•	 Bank Bondholders should share in bank losses	
•	 Renegotiate the interest rate on the EU loans	
•	 R
 enegotiate the fiscal strategy to promote
growth and fairness	
•	 E
 nsure an adequate flow of credit to the Irish
economy

8

Restore the Banking
System
The EU/IMF deal provides funding to
support a process of downsizing and
restructuring in the Irish banking
system, so as to restore international
confidence and ensure that the
system can fund itself – i.e. that
the banks will be able to function
without support from the ECB.
Labour will apply the following
principles to the restructuring and
down-sizing of the banks:

Labour will insist that an
adequate pool of credit is
available to fund small and
medium-sized businesses

•	 L abour believes that bank
bondholders should share in
bank losses. Depositors must
be fully protected. Labour will
seek to ensure that burden
sharing with bondholders is
part of a renegotiated deal.	
•	 L abour will insist that an
adequate pool of credit is
available to fund small and
medium-sized businesses in
the real economy during the
re-structuring and downsizing programme. 	
•	 L abour will ensure that, at the
end of the process, a strong
and robust banking system
exists that will serve the needs
of the real Irish economy. The

9

banks will have to provide
detailed plans on how this
will be achieved, including
the number of SME lenders to
be involved in achieving the
targets, how many new SME
clients will a bank achieve, and
how much will be focused onto
existing clients.	
•	 L abour will seek to agree more
effective alternatives to the
transfer of further portfolios
of smaller property loans to
NAMA (NAMA2), given the
difficulties this will create in
the management of such loanbooks.	
•	 L abour is opposed to further
fire-sales of bank assets which
impose greater losses than
necessary. We do not support
the NAMA3 asset warehousing
proposal as a solution that can
be implemented in a timely
manner. Labour will explore all
options to minimise the cost
of re-structuring, including
asset insurance models, and
to increase the availability
of affordable funding to the
banking system in the interim
period to provide the real
economy with credit. 	
•	 L abour will seek to dispose
of the public stakes in the
banks as soon as possible at
the best possible return to the
taxpayer. Labour believes that
a restructured banking system
should include a specialist stateowned, but strictly independent,
investment bank, focused on
funding investment to support
the strategic needs of the Irish
economy, including project
finance for infrastructure and
growth capital for firms. Such a
bank would be capitalised from
the funds remaining in the 	
NPRF and should form an ongoing part of the financial
system in Ireland’s open and
innovative economy.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour does not accept that the EU/
IMF deal provides a workable basis for
restoring the Irish economy. Labour in
government will engage with the EU
and the IMF to renegotiate the deal,
so as to achieve fair and realistic terms
for Ireland and for the Irish people.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

•	 L abour will insist on restructuring of bank boards,
to ensure replacement of
directors who presided over
failed lending practices.
Labour will ensure that the
regulator has sufficient
powers of pre-approval of
bank directors and senior
executives.

Strong, coherent
decision-making
Effective decision making in this
process demands better decisionmaking structures, in contrast to
the fragmented and sometimes
contradictory approach that
has been in evidence during the
crisis to date. Labour will create a
strong integrated decision-making
structure, which while respecting
the statutory roles of the different
agencies, will incorporate all
relevant agencies, with effective
inclusion of appropriate advice, led
by senior Ministers.

Getting value for the
taxpayer from NAMA
Labour has been consistently
opposed to the NAMA project,
because it presented an
unacceptably high and irreversible
risk to the taxpayer. Labour in
government will seek to curtail any
further transfers of assets to NAMA,
and will seek alternative solutions
to the transfer of large portfolios of
smaller property loans.
Effective operations and decision
making by NAMA are critical to
the future of the Irish economy, in
respect both of curtailing losses
to the State, and in ensuring that
the property market in Ireland
functions normally. The prices at
which assets are sold by NAMA
is critical. Labour will also insist
on the highest standards of
transparency in the operation of
NAMA, and will work to limit the
costs associated with the agency

such as in respect of professional
fees. Labour will insist on the
fullest recovery of losses from the
developers whose loans have been
transferred to NAMA and who do
not meet their obligations.

Never again
Ireland’s banking crisis clearly
demonstrates how Fianna Fáil’s
philosophy of free-for-all, lighttouch regulation, without proper
checks and balances risks social and
economic catastrophe.
Labour will restore the soundness
and credibility of the Irish banking
sector so that it can again play its
valuable social and economic role – a
safe haven for savings, a facilitator
of payments, a responsible lender
for productive investment and
important family purchases.
In the future, regulation must be
based not only on sound principles,
but on clear, enforceable rules
backed up by stringent oversight
and sanctions where necessary. The
Central Bank should be charged with
monitoring balance sheet growth
at financial institutions under its
jurisdiction, and in the financial
system as a whole, and on the
sustainability of the funding mix,
reporting annually to the Minister
for Finance and recommending
remedial action if necessary.
Once the banks are put on a sound
footing, efforts should be made to
accelerate a move to the Basel III

regime with more onerous capital
and reporting requirements.
Long before the most recent banking
crisis, Irish banks established a
track record on over-charging their
customers. Irish consumers need a
reinforced watchdog with real teeth
and the will to take on the bankers.
Fianna Fáil have hived off the
consumer protection function of the
Financial Regulator to the National
Consumer Agency. It is essential 	
that its quasi-judicial role in terms 	
of investigating wrongdoings 	
and imposing sanctions is not
watered down.

Enhanced coordination is needed
between the Financial Services
Ombudsman, the Office of the
Director of Corporate Enforcement,
the National Consumer Agency, and
the Head of Financial Regulation at
the Central Bank. There should be a
one-stop-shop portal for consumers
with issues with financial service
providers rather than having to
navigate these myriad bodies.

Paying for the crisis
Over time, the banking sector must
pay a fair contribution to cleaning up
the mess for which it is responsible.
When the Irish banking system
has been put back on its feet, fully
recapitalised, and able to access
interbank markets, Labour will
introduce a bank levy based on the
size of a bank’s liabilities (other than
shareholders’ capital).

Labour will insist on the fullest
recovery of losses from the
developers whose loans have
been transferred to NAMA
10

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Special Resolution Regime
for failed banks
Because of the important role that
banks play in the wider economy,
they cannot just be wound up in the
same way as other businesses when
they are bankrupt. This should not
mean, however, that taxpayers are
on the hook for banks’ debts. Ireland
should work with our European
Partners to develop a comprehensive
new Special Resolution Regime
that ensures protection of
banks’ depositors, but allows for
appropriate burden sharing with
other creditors.

An end to bonus culture
Bonuses in the financial sector have
grown out of all proportion with
their social and economic value and
have encouraged risk-taking that is
ultimately borne by the taxpayer.
All remuneration schemes at banks
subject to state support should
undergo a fundamental review to
ensure an alignment of interest
between banks, their staff and the
taxpayers who have borne such a
heavy burden to keep them open.

Regional Enterprise Funds
Opportunities should be explored
(for instance through JEREMIE,
run by the EIF) for the launch of a
Regional Investment Fund by refocusing some of our remaining
structural funds which have yet to
be drawn down from Brussels. This
would be a revolving fund where the
money can be re-invested.

Getting credit flowing to
small & family businesses

Across Ireland, viable, profitable,
well-run businesses are going to
the wall because they can’t access
credit. Labour will introduce an SME
Working Capital Guarantee Scheme
which would ensure that viable
small and family businesses can get
the loans they need.

Labour will insist on a full
and proper investigation into
the blanket bank guarantee
A strong mutual and
credit union sector
Labour is committed to maintaining
a mutual and community component
in our financial system. Ireland’s
credit unions have a rich tradition
and a track record of providing loans
in communities and workplaces
across the country. The credit union
movement has an important role
to play in Ireland’s future financial
architecture and the movement
deserves support in its endeavours
to increasingly modernise and
professionalise the sector. This will
involve a fair and impartial review of
credit union regulation.

Inquiry into the blanket
Bank Guarantee
The blanket bank guarantee was
the most disastrous policy decision
in the history of the state. Labour
will insist that a full and proper
investigation into this decision and
the events leading up to it 	
is completed and that there are
public hearings by the relevant
Oireachtas Committee.

Addressing financial
exclusion
Labour is committed to tackling
the problem of financial exclusion
through measures such as the
introduction of basic bank accounts.
We also believe that a new
partnership should be sought to
provide banking services through
the Post Office Network.

11

The future of the IFSC
Labour supports the future
development of the IFSC as a
source of future growth in high
value employment, subject to
appropriate regulation, including
the development of Green financial
services and Islamic banking.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs

Fiscal Stability, Investment
And Competitiveness
Time for change

Labour believes that the growth forecasts in the
Four-Year Plan are broadly achievable, provided that
the right policies are put in place. Ireland can achieve
high export growth, and see a return to growth in
the more job-intensive domestic economy.
The Fiscal Strategy set out in the EU/
IMF deal, however, involves excessive
austerity, which will put growth
and job creation at risk. Labour
is proposing a strategy that will
maximise investment and growth.

02

The first steps
•	 E
 xtend the deadline for achieving the 3% of
GDP deficit target to 2016	
•	 I mplement a net adjustment of €7.1 billion in
the period 2012-2014	
•	 A
 fair and balanced approach to achieving
savings	
•	 A
 new strategic approach to achieve better
public spending	
•	 E
 stablish a Strategic Investment Bank to
invest in the Irish economy using resources in
the National Pension Reserve Fund	

12

therefore seek to renegotiate the
fiscal strategy in the IMF/EU deal.

As a result of the mismanagement
of the economy by Fianna Fáil,
Ireland is dependent on the IMF/EU
loan facility to fund the fiscal deficit.
Labour has consistently supported
the objective of restoring fiscal
stability, in line with our obligations
as a member of the Eurozone, and
as a necessary requirement for
economic stability and long-run
growth. Labour does not accept,
however, that the fiscal strategy
devised by the discredited Fianna
Fáil government and included
in the EU/IMF deal provides a
basis for economic recovery or for
maximising long-term growth. In
particular, the excessive austerity
in the Fianna Fáil plan, endorsed by
Fine Gael, poses an unacceptable
risk to economic recovery.

Labour’s priorities for the
fiscal year 2011

Labour does not accept that
the fiscal strategy devised by
the discredited Fianna Fáil
government provides a basis
for economic recovery
	
Labour believes that the average
GDP growth rate set out in the fouryear plan is achievable, provided
that pro-growth policies are
adopted. These include action to
enhance competitiveness, to ensure
adequate flows of credit, to promote
investment and an appropriate fiscal
strategy. The Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael
austerity programme does not allow
sufficient room for economic growth
and employment creation. The
scale and nature of the cuts being
proposed also pose risks to medium
and long-term economic growth
and to social cohesion. Labour will

13

In respect of the fiscal year 2011,
Labour will negotiate with the EU
and the IMF to ensure that adequate
resources are available in 2011 to
fund key jobs strategies and reforms
in the health sector. We believe these
funds should be provided from cash
balances, and not through further
expenditure cuts.
It is clear that the Universal Social
Charge was not properly thought
through, and that it is having a
dramatic impact on the incomes
of many families. The charge has
been introduced at a time when
other taxes are increasing, as well
as household bills like VHI fees. This
is causing particular hardship to
some families, including working
widows and elderly people. Labour
will conduct a detailed review of the
impact of the USC to identify the
families that have been hardest hit,
and will reform the tax accordingly.
We will fund these changes by
extending the 10% rate of USC on
incomes over €100,000 to include
employees’ incomes over €100,000,
and by changes to capital taxes.

Fiscal Strategy for
2012 – 2014
Labour proposes a net fiscal
adjustment in 2012-2014 of €7.1
billion, so as to allow adequate
room for jobs and recovery. Labour
will complete the reduction in the
deficit to below 3% of GDP by no
later than 2016.
Labour believes that the composition
of the adjustment should be fairer
and more balanced, including fairer
taxation and on-going investment
in education and other vital services,
which are essential to social solidarity
and to long-term economic growth.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Ensuring fiscal stability
and growth

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

New priorities in capital
expenditure
Ireland needs to take a new
approach to public and private
capital investment that reflects
the new realities of the economy
and the constraints on public
resources, while also incorporating
the new funding that will be
available through Labour’s Strategic
Investment Bank.
Labour in government will
commission a new study of Ireland’s
investment needs (similar to the
2006 ESRI study), and draw up a
National Development Plan covering
the seven-year period 2012-2019.
In the initial years, when resources
will be most heavily constrained,
Labour will prioritise investment in
education, in health, in science and
technology and in job-creation.
Labour will insist that major capital
projects are subjected to proper
cost-benefit analysis and evaluation,
improving future productivity
and growth prospects, and that
the value-for-money obtained is
significantly enhanced compared to
the most recent period.
Labour’s strategy is to support the
development of an investment
economy, while maximising the
return to the public from major
programmes of investment.

A Comprehensive Spending
Review and Waste Audit
Given the need for fiscal
consolidation, it will be necessary
to curtail current expenditure in
the immediate future. While this
will involve difficult decisions, it
will also afford the opportunity to
reform the public service to enhance
efficiency and eliminate waste.
Rather than adopting a piece-meal,
cheese-paring approach Labour
will insist on a properly planned
multi-annual expenditure strategy.

To this end, Labour will conduct a
Comprehensive Spending Review
and Waste Audit that will examine
all areas of public expenditure. This
will be markedly different to the
‘Bord Snip’ exercise, in its purpose
and in the way it is conducted.
The Comprehensive Spending
Review and Waste Audit will
be a major exercise in strategic
budgeting and will involve a
fundamental assessment of all
spending programmes, examining
their objectives and how those
objectives are achieved. The purpose
of strategic budgeting is to find the
most cost effective ways to provide
services to the public and to improve
future growth and productivity. It
will take account of the changing
needs of modern Ireland, and
will be conducted on a ‘whole of
government’ basis.
Learning from the experience in other
countries, the spending review will
be led, not by external consultants,
but by government Ministers
and the Secretary General of each
Department, co-ordinated from the
centre of government. It will adopt
a three-year time horizon, resulting
in a plan for public expenditure for
the period 2012-2014. This exercise
should be an immediate priority for
government and will be concluded in
time to feed into Budget 2012.
As part of this exercise, Labour will
include a ‘surrender and re-grant’
clause, whereby Departments that
propose savings in one programme
would be able to propose re-cycling
of some of those savings into other
priority areas, subject to a ‘reducing
ceiling’ on aggregate budgets.
The ‘reducing ceiling’ means that
non-pay budgets will be required
to be reduced by at least 2% per
annum over three years on an
aggregate basis – the percentage
savings achieved will vary across
departments in line with policy
priorities. Labour will also seek
to enhance the local flexibility

14

available to public service managers
in how they deploy their budgets
to achieve maximum efficiency and
service quality.

Culling quangos
Non-Commercial Semi-State Bodies
or quangos have mushroomed in
recent years. Labour is concerned
about the value-for-money being
achieved by these bodies and by the
lack of accountability associated
with them. The Comprehensive
Spending Review and Waste Audit
will include a full evaluation of all
quangos, with each body being
required to justify its continued
existence outside of its parent
department. Remaining quangos
will be required to be properly
accountable to the Oireachtas.
Labour is proposing a series of
amalgamations of quangos relating
to utilities regulation, equality,
industrial development and
broadcasting that will both save
money and achieve greater policy
coherence.

Reforming social
protection
In order to close the fiscal deficit, it
is vital that we reduce the cost of
Fianna Fáil’s failure to address the
problem of unemployment. Labour
is proposing a series of strategies
to tackle the growing problem of
long-term unemployment, and in
doing so to reduce the associated
expenditures on social welfare.
We will also launch an all-out
campaign to tackle the problem of
welfare fraud.

Leadership from the
political system
At a time when savings are being
sought across the public service,
the political system must also show
leadership. Labour is proposing a cap
on all Ministerial and public sector
salaries, corresponding reductions
in the salaries of Ministers of State,

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour will conduct a
Comprehensive Spending
Review and Waste Audit
that will examine all areas
of public expenditure
reductions in the number of paid
chairs of Oireachtas Committees
and abolition of the Oireachtas
allowance paid to Ministers
who have constituency offices
staffed by civil servants. Labour is
proposing reform in the transport
arrangements for Ministers
including a reduction in the number
of Garda drivers.
The arrangements for Ministerial
pensions and severance packages
have rightly been the cause of public
outrage. Labour will ensure that in
future these arrangements are set by
an independent person, such as the
Comptroller and Auditor General.

Reducing the public
service pay bill
As part of the process of fiscal
consolidation, it is necessary to
reduce the public service pay bill. Our
proposals are based on a reduction
of 18,000 in public service numbers
in the period 2011-2014. Public
employment ceilings will be reassessed during the Comprehensive
Spending Review and Waste Audit to
ensure that the maximum savings
are being achieved and that frontline
services are being protected.
Labour will work the Croke Park
Agreement. It is essential that the
agreement should result in savings
to the Exchequer and that the pace
of implementation of the Agreement
be accelerated.

Strategic Expenditure
Priorities
In order to achieve recovery and
reform, it will be necessary to
re-allocate resources to areas
of strategic priority. This means
achieving more savings in order to
re-invest in reform and development.
Labour’s adjustment proposals
provide for resources to fund a €500
million annual jobs package. As part
of Labour’s health strategy, the cost
of providing health care in Ireland
will be driven down, with €489
million being provided to ensure a
major shift towards primary care.
Additional resources will be provided
in key areas of education and
criminal justice to drive reform.

Fair taxation 2012-2014
Labour has long argued for a fair and
balanced tax structure in Ireland and
we will seek to renegotiate the EU/
IMF deal to achieve this objective.
It is an important principle of
taxation that those who have the
most, must contribute the most, and
that revenue-raising must begin
with reform, rather than constantly
delaying it as Fianna Fáil have done.
Labour does not support further
impositions of income tax on people
on middle and modest incomes in
the period 2012-2014. We propose no
increases in income tax for people
earning less than €100,000. We
will extend the 10% USC rate to
employee incomes over €100,000.

15

Labour will insert a new provision
in the tax code to ensure that high
earners (tax units with incomes
over €250,000) must comply with
a Minimum Effective Tax Rate to be
set at 30%. This will impose a fair
restriction on the capacity of high
earners to reduce their tax bills
through tax planning.
Labour in government introduced
the 12.5% corporation profits tax rate,
and we will insist that it remains
in place. Reforms to the regime
for off-setting corporate losses
against Corporation Tax can be
adopted to increase the yield from
the tax without affecting Ireland’s
attractiveness as a location for
inward investment.
Labour will prioritise the elimination
of unnecessary tax expenditures, as
we have been proposing for many
years. These include the legacy
property reliefs, and phasing down
of the amount of interest that can be
offset against rental income for tax
purposes to 25%.
Labour believes that the total
quantum of tax relief currently
in place for pensions is no
longer supportable, and that the
distribution of relief at present is not
fair or equitable. Labour will target a
further reduction of €500 million in
the total amount of relief, but rather
than simply standardising the rate
of relief, Labour favours an approach
that retains strong incentives for
people to invest in pensions while
also making the system fairer. This
will include capping the tax relief
on pension contributions from both
employers and employees, reducing
the maximum tax-free lump sum,
reducing the maximum pension
fund and including pension tax relief
in the minimum effective tax rate.
Labour favours the introduction
of new progressive structures for
Capital Taxes. In respect of Capital
Gains Tax and Capital Acquisitions
Tax, the first €50,000 over the

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

threshold will be taxed at 30% and
the balance at 35%. These measures
will raise €236 million in a full year.
The change in Capital Acquisitions
Tax will be introduced in 2011 to
finance changes in the Universal
Social Charge.
Labour believes that appropriate tax
rules have a role to play in protecting
our environment. Labour will
increase the carbon tax to €25 per
tonne, with an offset of €40 million
to fund fuel poverty measures.
Labour supports a broadly based
tax on packaging as proposed by
Comhar that will raise €60 million.
Labour is proposing a 1% increase
in the standard rate of VAT that will
raise €310 million in a full year.
Labour’s proposals include modest
increases in excise on wine and
cigarettes. Labour will prioritise
action to reduce losses to the
Exchequer from smuggling through
stronger revenue enforcement.
Labour accepts that it will be
necessary to introduce a site value
charge, in order to prevent higher
taxes on work. The Government has
not, however, carried out sufficient
work to allow such a charge to be
introduced in the short-term. Further
detailed study will be required to
devise a fair basis for such a charge
that takes account of the value of
property in different regions, the
need to exempt some categories
of homeowners, and the need to
take account of those who have
recently paid large sums in stamp
duty or who are in negative equity.
Any charge of this sort, therefore,
cannot be set in place before 2014.
Accordingly, Labour will publish a
Green Paper by the end of 2012 on
how the charge can be structured
in a fair and efficient manner. As
an interim measure, Labour will
increase the second homes levy by
€300 to yield €95 million.

Labour will take action to deal
with the scandal of tax exiles,
and will further strengthen
revenue action to reduce
tax evasion
Labour will insist on action being
taken to deal with the scandal
of tax exiles, and we will further
strengthen revenue action to reduce
tax-evasion.

Investing in Job Creation
Throughout the crisis, Labour has
been clear that cuts alone will not
solve the problem. Ireland needs a
strategy for jobs and growth, and
the lack of action on jobs has made
the crisis in the public finances and
in the banks even worse. While
difficult decisions are needed, we
also need a strategy to grow our
way out of our predicament.
Despite the financial crisis at home
and abroad, we are living in a period
of opportunity for the Irish economy.
In the advanced economies, economic
growth is now increasingly driven
by what is known as the ‘knowledge
economy’, with new technologies
driving economic growth both
in knowledge-intensive sectors,
and more widely across the whole
economy. At the same time, the
global trading system is expanding,
and the emerging economies such as
China and India present enormous
opportunities for Irish companies.
Export growth in Ireland is picking up,
and competitiveness has improved.
What we need now is a coherent
strategy to take advantage of the
opportunities that are available to us.

16

Labour’s Jobs Fund
Labour’s fiscal strategy provides
for a €500 million Jobs Fund
to finance a series of pro-jobs
initiatives that involve elements
of current expenditure. The fund
would be administered by a Cabinet
sub-committee. Proposals from
Departments, agencies and other
bodies, including the private sector,
would be considered on the basis
of their contribution to an overall
jobs strategy and would be funded
accordingly. The agencies thus
funded would not be immune from
making efficiencies in their budgets
– funding from the Jobs Fund would
be dependent on demonstrated
additionality to existing operations.

Strategic Investment
To achieve growth, the Fianna Fáil
casino economy must be replaced
with by the investment economy.
The Irish banking system has not
provided the kind of investment
finance that is required to meet
Ireland’s investment needs. To
fill the gap, Labour is proposing
the establishment of a Strategic
Investment Bank.
The Strategic Investment Bank will
be established in two phases. It
will be set up initially as a vehicle
to invest the remaining funds
in the National Pension Reserve
Fund in projects that will enhance
infrastructure and boost growth
in the Irish economy. It will be fully

www.labour.ie/manifesto

independent and will invest on a
commercial basis.
Over time, and when market
conditions normalise, this vehicle
will be developed into a functioning
bank that takes deposits and raises
long term financing. Labour believes
that the Strategic Investment Bank
should be an essential component
of the re-structured banking system.
The bank would be set up as an
independent commercial operation,
using €2 billion of the National
Pension Reserve Fund as capital.
It would operate on a strict armslength basis from government. Irish
citizens and the Irish Diaspora would
be encouraged to make deposits in
the bank, and to purchase Citizen’s
Bonds, which would be a way to
invest in the recovery of the Irish
economy, and would be of different
maturities. The bank would attract
funding from a number of sources,
including consumer deposits and
wholesale markets (once market
conditions normalise).
The Strategic Investment Bank
would be a key lender to SMEs and
innovative firms. The Enterprise
Agencies would develop relationships
with the Strategic Investment Bank
to facilitate introductions of highpotential firms. Investment decisions,
however, would remain the exclusive
preserve of the bank. The Strategic
Investment Bank would also support
investment in large infrastructure
projects.

Improving competitiveness
Competitiveness has improved
during the past three years, but
we need to ensure that, as growth
returns, these gains are not eroded.
In particular, it is important that
costs in the protected sectors of
the economy do not undermine
the capacity of the traded sector to
compete. To maintain and enhance
competitiveness, Labour is proposing
the following measures:

Wage Policy
Labour believes that negotiated
wage policies can potentially be an
important tool of macroeconomic
policy in a small open economy.  We
will explore options for developing
such an agreement, which may
include national and/or sectoral
wage norms.  Labour believes that
investment and job creation can
be enhanced through structured
multiannual agreements that
incorporate wage restraint.

Utilities Regulation
Labour will enhance the quality and
effectiveness of utilities regulation
in Ireland. We favour a properly
planned consolidation of the number
of regulators, to make more effective
use of regulatory skills. Labour will
retain the Competition Authority as
a separate entity.

Wage competitiveness should
not be confused with a low wage
agenda. Labour is opposed to the
reduction in the minimum wage
agreed by Fianna Fáil with the
European Union and the IMF and
we will reverse it. The national
minimum wage affects fewer than
3% of the work force, who are on
the lowest rung of the labour force
ladder. Labour will reform the JLC
system, but this cannot be used as
the basis to undermine the rights
and conditions of employment of
vulnerable workers.
Competition Policy
Labour will support robust
competition policy and enforcement.
We support structural reform in the
professions to drive down the cost
base for the traded sector.

Labour believes that
the Strategic Investment
Bank should be an
essential component of the
re-structured banking system
17

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs
Enterprise and
Innovation
Time for change

To achieve economic growth and job creation, the Irish
economy must shift from a property-based economy
to a knowledge economy. We need to carve out new
markets, and develop new products to sell in them.
Ireland has an open and entrepreneurial economy with
multiple natural and developed competitive advantages.
We need a government that will help
that economy to grow by driving trade,
innovation and productivity growth.  

03

The first steps
•	 U
 se Labour’s s500 million jobs fund to grow
employment in sectors where Ireland already
has a competitive advantage	
•	 M
 ake the strategic decision to target the
development of new markets for Ireland in the
emerging economies	
•	 A
 ppoint a trade czar to co-ordinate action
across government in opening these fast
growing markets	
•	 P
 lug the gap in our national system of
innovation by investing to turn new scientific
advances into jobs	
•	 C
 reate innovation centres focused on
commercialisation of research

18

Competitiveness and productivity
gains which generated strong exportled growth formed the basis for the
Celtic Tiger from 1994 to 2002. We
need a renewal of this strategy in
order to create the foundations for
future economic and employment
growth. However the previous
blueprint will have to change.
New economic realities, the imperative
to decarbonise our economy, and the
need to develop a new generation of
export champions will require a reset
in our trade and enterprise policy.
Labour will place a much stronger
emphasis on the promotion of
services exports, including software,
engineering, financial services,
education and culture.

Labour will establish
a Trade Council to
strengthen cooperation
and coordination across key
departments
To support the development of
exporting SMEs, we will seek
reform of EU procurement rules so
that a greater portion of all public
procurement goes to small and
medium sized enterprises.
We will promptly implement all the
recommendations in the Trading
and Investing in the Smart Economy
Report. In particular, we will establish
a Trade Council to strengthen
cooperation and coordination across
all of the key departments and State
agencies involved in the promotion
and development of trade and
exports. Membership of the Council

19

will be divided equally between
government and private sector
representatives who have experience
in establishing and growing exportoriented business both in Ireland 	
and abroad.
We will appoint a high profile
Trade and Enterprise czar to
work with in tandem with the
Trade Council, who will be able to
draw on full diplomatic and civil
service resources and who will
report directly to the Minister for
Enterprise and the Taoiseach.
A key pillar of Labour’s new
enterprise strategy will be to
position Ireland to develop better
trade relationships with the rising
economies of Brazil, Russia, India ,
and China.
Labour will establish a local trade
and investment team reporting
to the local Irish Ambassador or
Head of Mission and the Minister
for Enterprise in each of the target
emerging countries and other
priority markets. These teams will
execute a detailed local market
plan, with progress against targets
reviewed annually.
At home, Labour in government will
draw on the economic strengths and
connections of Ireland’s immigrant
communities by appointing a
representative from each of the BRICS
and other strategic markets resident
in Ireland as trade champions for their
respective countries, reporting to both
the Trade Council and the Minister for
Enterprise. Trade champions will have
a mission of promoting trade to and
from Ireland and will be supported by
the Department of Enterprise.
Labour will take initiatives to deepen
educational cooperation with the
emerging economies, financed from
Labour’s Jobs Fund.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

A new approach to
enterprise policy

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

An Innovation
Strategy Agency
Innovation is the single most
important factor in the transition to
a sustainable investment economy.
While Ireland has a number of
key strengths in this area, such
as high quality scientific research
institutions, scientists and engineers,
our innovation system has a number
of deficiencies. Labour’s plan for
innovation is directly aimed at
addressing these weaknesses, while
building on our existing strengths.
Labour will subsume the current
activities and functions of Forfas, the
Innovation Taskforce, the Advisory
Council for Science, Technology and
Innovation and the Sustainable
Energy Authority into a newlyestablished Innovation Strategy
Agency an independent agency within
the IDA / Enterprise Ireland structure,
whose role will be to stimulate
technology-enabled innovation in the
areas which offer the greatest scope
for boosting growth and productivity.
Labour’s Innovation Strategy Agency
will promote and support investment
in technology research, development
and commercialisation beyond the
basic research supported by Science
Foundation Ireland, as well as advising
government on how to remove
barriers to innovation and accelerate
the exploitation of new technologies.
The majority of the members of
the board of the ISA will be drawn
from industry and finance from
both Ireland and abroad with
experience of technology change
and innovation.
The Innovation Strategy Agency
will focus its work by targeting key
technology areas and sectors where
innovation can be applied including
but not limited to high value
manufacturing, advanced materials,
nanotechnology, bioscience,
electronics, photonics and electrical
systems and information and
communication technology.

The ISA will also focus on the
application of technological
innovation in established sectors of
the economy like energy generation
and supply, transport, creative
industries, high-value services and
architecture and construction 	
by identifying challenges,
establishing priorities and
developing strategies which specify
the necessary actions to transition
to a more innovative approach.
The ISA will promote Ireland’s full
engagement with the ‘Innovative
Union’ proposals issued by the
European Commission in October
2010 as one of the seven flagship
initiatives under the EU2020
Strategy, with the specific aim of
refocusing R&D and innovation
policy on major challenges and at
turning inventions into products.

Turning research
into jobs
There is a critical gap between
the basic research promoted and
funded by Science Foundation
Ireland and third level institutions,
and its subsequent development
into a commercial opportunity
for investors. This gap can only be
closed by making new technologies
investment ready.
The Innovation Strategy Agency
will be tasked with closing this
gap through the establishment of
a network of Technology Research
Centres focused on applied
technological research in specific
areas, to be linked to appropriate
higher-education institutions.
The centres will accelerate the
exploitation of new technologies by
providing infrastructure that bridges
the gap between research and
technology commercialisation.
The establishment of these centres
will build on the approach already
adopted with the Tyndall Centre on
ICT and the International Energy
Research Centre (IERC) in UCC where

20

government, industry and academics
partner to focus on applied research
that will lead to concrete results and
commercial applications.
In order to promote Ireland’s strong
historical tradition in science and
technology for the next generation
of scientists, each centre will be
named after a renowned Irish
scientist such as Robert Boyle, Ernest
Walton, Jocelyn Bell Burnell or
Kathleen Lonsdale.
Initially these centres will be funded
in a three-way split between the ISA,
competitive grants, and contracts
with private companies. Over time,
the centres will be expected to
supplement their core funding by
gaining further income from public
and private sector contract research,
and through the commercialisation
of intellectual property.
The ISA will initially establish three
additional centres building on
Tyndall and the IERC focusing on
biotechnology, nanotechnology and
high value manufacturing. Further
centres from a number of other
areas will be selected subsequently.
The Innovation Research Centres will
also be in a position to play a role
as anchor tenants in more broadlybased Science and Technology Parks
that will attract private firms in the
specific research area.

Sectoral jobs strategies
As well as creating the conditions for
innovation and export-led growth,
Labour is proposing a number of
sectoral strategies, which build on
Ireland’s existing strengths. Labour’s
proposals for growing employment
in tourism, the green economy, the
agri-food sector and in the education
sector are outlined elsewhere in
this manifesto. Other sectors with
specific targets include:

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour’s Innovation Strategy
Agency will promote & support
investment in technology
research, development &
commercialisation
Labour’s plan for Creative Industries
•	 Establish common IP
agreements across the digital
media sector and third level
institutions.	
•	 S
 upport the development
of an International Content
Services Centre to make
Ireland a world leader in 	
the management of
intellectual property.	
•	 M
 erge the functions of
Culture Ireland and Cultural
Projects into the Arts
Council, which will be given
an expanded mandate to
promote Irish arts abroad.	
•	 E
 xtend the R&D tax credit to
the games industry in order to
attract game developers and
grow the game sector 	
in Ireland.	
•	 E
 nsure Ireland fully engages
in the debate arising from the
forthcoming (2011) European
Commission Communication
on Cultural and Creative
Industries. This Communication
should include proposals to
promote creative studies,
attract investment and provide
funding for artists, and to
establish networks 	
with businesses and 	
improve mobility.

Labour’s plan for Internet Services &
Cloud Computing
•	 Continue to market Ireland
as an EMEA headquarters
location for internet services
companies.	
•	 P
 ursue an aggressive policy of
attracting international data
centres to Ireland, leveraging
the appropriateness of
our climate and energy
and communications
infrastructure.	
•	 E
 stablish an expert group
to address new security and
privacy issues arising from
the use of cloud computing
and review the adequacy
of current legislation and
identify what steps need to be
taken to ensure a supportive
regulatory environment.	
•	 I ntroduce a policy that all
government departments
and agencies will adopt
cloud based services if they
demonstrate value for money
and are adequately secure.	
•	 A
 ctively encourage new
businesses that are cloudfocused. 	
•	 R
 eview broadband pricing
and policies of commercial
and other providers to ensure
that any obstacles to the
adoption of cloud computing
are removed.

21

•	 I nnovation Strategy Agency to
create and fund a programme
to actively encourage the
use of cloud computing
throughout all sectors.
Labour’s plan to sustain the 	
retail sector	
•	 E
 nact the Labour Party’s
legislation to abolish upwardonly rent reviews for all
commercial leases, as a matter
of urgent priority for the Dáil.	
•	 I n the interim, appoint
a Commercial Rents
Ombudsman with some
powers currently only
granted to an Examiner. This
Ombudsman would have
the power to adjudicate on
rents that have the potential
to cause a business to fail,
without undertaking a costly
court process.	
•	 R
 eform the Joint Labour
Committee structure,
beginning with the
appointment of independent
chairpersons to the JLCs.	
•	 R
 etain the existing Retail
Planning Guidelines and
maintain the retail 	
planning cap. 	
•	 E
 ncourage local authorities to
introduce differentiated, timelimited rates to facilitate new
business start-ups.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Support for SMEs
There are approximately 230,000
SMEs operating in Ireland,
representing the backbone of
the Irish economy. SMEs are
confronted by a series of obstacles,
most notably working capital,
but also access to venture capital,
complicated bureaucracy, and
insufficient resourcing of the
patent process. Labour’s banking
policy is focused on ensuring an
adequate supply of capital for
SMEs, including a working capital
guarantee scheme, and greater
access to venture capital through
Labour’s Strategic Investment Bank.
The Innovation Strategy Agency
will work to up-grade the patent
process, while the streamlining of
bureaucracy will be addressed on a
cross-departmental basis.

Co-Operatives
Co-operatives, friendly societies and
mutual companies are a legitimate
and valued part of the Labour
tradition. In Ireland the co-operative
movement has played a hugely
important role in key areas 	
of economic, environmental 	
and social development.

Labour is committed to the
concept of public enterprise,
and is determined to ensure
that semi-state companies
play a full role in the recovery
of the Irish economy
model to be realised, including in
areas such as childcare, education,
housing, energy retrofitting,
environmental protection, transport
and healthcare.

Semi-State Companies
Labour is committed to concept of
public enterprise, and is determined
to ensure that semi-state companies
play a full role in the recovery of the
Irish economy. Labour is opposed to
short-termist privatisation of key
state assets, such as Coillte or the
energy networks.

However, in comparison to other
countries, the role of the co-operative
and mutual company in Ireland is
limited. In many other countries new
co-operative models of enterprise
have emerged and are meeting vital
social, business and environmental
needs and creating worthwhile jobs
in important areas such as healthcare,
transport, childcare, housing,
energy and energy efficiency and
environmental protection.
Labour in government will work to
promote a greater appreciation of
the co-operative model as a distinct
form of organisation, ensure a level
playing field between co-operatives
and the other legal options for
structuring enterprise activities, and
provide a conducive framework for
the full potential of the co-operative

22

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs
A New Deal
for Jobseekers
Time for change

Ireland is facing a jobs crisis, that risks becoming a
crisis of long-term unemployment. Labour sees forced
emigration as a stark failure of government, not a
solution. Business as usual will not be enough to cope
with the unemployment challenge ahead.
We need to reform our social
protection system so that it is the
first step on a path back to work,
education or training, not a 	
poverty trap.

The first steps
•	 A
 new National Employment Service to
replace FÁS	
•	 A
 major work experience scheme for 30,000
recent graduates and apprentices	
•	 3 0,000 new education and training places for
people who are unemployed	
•	 R
 educed qualifying periods for Back to
Education Allowance and Back to Work
Enterprise Allowance for the period of this
economic emergency	
•	 A
 n 18 month PRSI holiday for employers hiring
new employees off the live register

04

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour’s plan for an
integrated National
Employment Service
Labour will replace FÁS with a 	
new National Employment 	
Service to meet the needs of a 	
21st century workforce.
All employment and benefit support
services for people of working age
will be integrated in a single delivery
unit, a National Employment Service,
managed by the Department of
Social Protection.
This new employment and benefit
support service would absorb:	

Labour will replace FÁS with
a new National Employment
Service to meet the needs of a
21st century workforce
•	 T
 he functions of the
Department of Social
Protection relating to
assessment and delivery 	
of benefits for people of
working age.	
•	 T
 he functions of the
Department of Social Protection
relating to Community
Employment participants.	
•	 T
 he administration of the
Supplementary Welfare
Allowance, currently carried
out by the HSE.	
•	 T
 he Employment Services unit
of FÁS, which provides support
to jobseekers.	
•	 T
 he Local Employment 	
Service Network.

24

This integrated service would
provide a ‘one stop shop’ for people
seeking to establish their benefit
entitlements; looking for a job; and
seeking advice about their training
options. It also decentralises the
administration of working-age
benefits, which will in future be
assessed and managed locally.
This service will offer users a higher
level of personalised employment
counselling, with more frequent
face-to-face interviews. Training and
deployment of staff will reflect this
focus. Those on the live register who
are identified as being most at risk
of long-term unemployment will
receive priority treatment for more
intensive support.
As part of these reforms, Labour will
also develop a flagship web-based
adult career guidance portal, which
will provide adults with free advice
on how to develop their skills for
work. This will be funded through
efficiency savings arising from the
reform process.
Helping people move into
employment, or into training that
leads to sustainable employment,
will be the primary function of the
National Employment Service. Its
performance will be measured on
this basis, and the results published
annually.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

This development of a flagship
National Employment Service
is a key part of Labour’s wider
reforms of the social protection
system, which are grounded in the
principle that a person’s first day of
unemployment should also be a first
step on the way back to work, with
appropriate training, education or
work experience support and other
incentives to make that happen. This
will also apply to those in receipt
of working age benefits who are
capable of making a transition to
work in the community, education,
or training, or employment.

Meeting the education
and training needs of
jobseekers
The majority of FÁS funds for direct
training, and all of the FÁS training
centres, will be transferred to the
further education and Institute of
Technology sectors, with an explicit
mandate to deliver high-quality,
flexible vocational education and
training and a broader, modern
apprenticeship programme that
caters to a wider variety of trades,
ages and genders. This will be
accompanied by a redeployment
of qualified training staff from FÁS
to Colleges of Further Education
and Institutes of Technology, as
appropriate.
The transition will be strategically
managed by government to ensure
that available training and education
opportunities meet the current and
projected needs of the labour market,
and the needs of jobseekers.
In order to retain the element of
flexibility in the old FÁS system that
allowed it to respond to emerging
skills shortages, a proportion of the
funding would go to create a fund
that all providers (public and private)
will be able to tender for in order to
deliver training in designated skills
shortages. Those skills shortages
would be identified in annual labour
market surveys.

Labour’s Jobs Fund will
fund 60,000 new training,
education & internship places
60,000 new training,
education and internship
places
Labour’s Jobs Fund will fund 60,000
new training, education and
internship places, to help people who
are currently unemployed to develop
their skills, and position themselves
for new job opportunities. Labour’s
initiatives will include:
•	 ‘ Bridge the GAP’ – a Graduate
and Apprentice Work
Placement Scheme. A webbased broker connects recent
graduates and apprentices
with employers offering
six-month internships.
Participating interns would
be paid at the single person’s
rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance
for the duration of the
placement, plus a modest
cost-of-work allowance.	
•	 A
 n ‘Earn and Learn’ scheme
that enables people on ‘short
time’ to combine a shorter
working week with training
or education. 	
•	 A
 reduced qualifying period
of three months for the Back
to Education and Back to
Work Enterprise Allowance
to make it easier for people
to come off the dole and into
education, and greater access
to postgraduate courses
under the Back to Education
Allowance, for the period of
this economic emergency.	
•	 A
 tax-back scheme to help
people not eligible for other
means-tested supports to

25

claim up to two years of their
income tax back to fund fulltime study in an authorised
institution.	
•	 L iteracy and basic workplace
skills to be a national
priority, with literacy training
incorporated into a wider
variety of further education
and training.	
•	 ‘ Skills Exchanges’ within
further education colleges,
libraries, Institutes of
Technology or training
centres, to enable those
availing of training in one
field to use their previous
professional experience to
help train other people.	
•	 3 0,000 additional training
places across the entire
education and training
system, distributed in line
with the recommendations
of the Expert Group on
Future Skills Needs on the
skill requirements of the Irish
labour force.

Encouraging employers to
take on new employees
Labour will extend the Employer
PRSI Incentive Scheme, and extend
the exemption period to 18 months,
to incentivise employers to employ
people who have been on the live
register for 6 months or more. We
will ensure that employers are
made aware of this and other job
incentive schemes.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs
Growing the
Green Economy
Time for change

In the 21st century, a sustainable environment is integral to
a sustainable economy. Ireland has an obligation to reduce
our greenhouse gases, and play our part in tackling climate
change. However, this also provides us with an opportunity
to create new jobs in sectors such as clean technology,
renewable energy, and services that reduce our demand
for energy in the first place. The same is true of managing
our water supplies, reducing our waste, and enhancing
our environment so that it is safe, clean, and a positive
resource for tourism.

05

•	 P
 ass Labour’s Climate Change Bill to set legally
binding carbon reduction targets in line with
EU targets	
•	 I ntroduce a National Retrofit Scheme to make
our housing stock more energy efficient	
•	 C
 lear obstacles to bringing Ireland’s rich
renewable energy sources on stream	
•	 P
 osition Ireland as a leading player in the
global carbon market, and a centre of
excellence in the management of carbon	
•	 R
 eform how we regulate the waste sector
to kick-start investment and innovation, and
reduce costs for consumers

26

additional indirect and 	
induced jobs.

Labour’s Climate Change Bill will
provide certainty about government
policy, and a clear pathway for
emissions reduction, in line with
negotiated EU targets. Labour will
also work at EU level to set up a
national programme for forest
carbon offsets.

Labour will make it easier and
affordable for homeowners to upgrade
their home’s insulation by introducing
an Energy Efficiency Obligation on
energy suppliers, who would in turn
be required to offer ‘whole house’
energy efficiency upgrades. This would
be paid for through a ‘pay as you save’
mechanism on the household energy
bill.

Ireland also needs a coordinated
approach to the two-pronged
challenge of reducing our carbon
output and growing our energy
independence, with responsibility
at the highest level of government.
The Department of the Taoiseach
will coordinate both our domestic
and international policy on 	
climate change.
We also need to anticipate changes
to Ireland’s climate that are already
inevitable, by urgently developing 	
a national climate change
adaptation plan.

Labour will make it easier
and affordable for
homeowners to upgrade
their home’s insulation
Creating a low
carbon society
One of the easiest, fastest and
cheapest ways to reduce our carbon
emissions is to use less fossil fuels.
Labour will improve the energy
efficiency of our existing housing
stock by initiating a major National
Retrofit Scheme. There are up to
1.2 million dwellings in Ireland
in need of an energy efficiency
retrofit, creating at least 30,000
direct construction sector jobs with

27

Labour wants to end poor quality
housing in Ireland. To address the
problem of existing, inefficient
building stock, all housing will have to
meet a minimum standard of energy
efficiency at the point of sale or rent.
Labour will also further improve
energy efficiency for new buildings,
with a view to moving towards zero
carbon homes in the longer term. All
new commercial buildings will also be
required to significantly reduce their
carbon footprint.
In tandem with the development of a
smart public transport system, Labour
will target having 350,000 electric
cars on Irish roads by 2020.
Labour is also committed to an
initial target of 50% green public
procurement, and will progressively
raise energy efficiency and carbon
standards for future procurement
commitments.

Delivering clean,
secure energy
Ireland needs to maximise its rich
wind and wave energy regime,
and position itself to become a net
exporter of clean energy. Renewable
energy providers need certainty
about policy direction to invest and
expand their businesses. Labour will
legislate to regulate the geothermal
energy sector to provide certainty
for investors, and to provide for an
efficient Foreshore Licensing and
Leasing process for marine energy.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Combating global
warming

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

To date, the transition to a lowcarbon energy future in Ireland has
been defined by a lack of policy
and institutional coordination. This
lack of clarity in the framework
that supports the development
and deployment of low-carbon
technologies has delayed progress in
the energy sector.
Labour will create a coordinating
policy office, using existing
resources, within the Department
of Communications, Energy and
Natural Resources. This would have
the benefit of joined up thinking
and be in a position to enhance
sustainability measures in a
coordinated way across a number
of sectors.
As part of Labour’s enterprise
and innovation strategy, Labour
will seek to establish Ireland
as a renewable manufacturing
hub to attract international and
domestic investment. Labour will
also position Ireland as a leading
player in the global carbon market,
and a centre of excellence in the
management of carbon.
Labour will facilitate the
development of energy co-operatives
to make it easier for small-scale
renewable energy providers to
contribute to our renewables target.
Reducing demand for fossil fuels and
growing renewable energy supplies
are critical to our energy security.
However, it is important that our
gas and electricity networks are kept
in public ownership, so that access
to this vital infrastructure is not
jeopardised. Labour will also ensure
that Ireland’s royalty regime extends
to the Corrib gas field as part of a
wider review of the tax regime and
conditions of oil and gas exploration.
Labour will scrap the plan by the
Energy Regulator to insist on the
unnecessary cost of re-branding of
Bord Gáis and ESB.

Labour will take immediate
action to alleviate the risk of
fuel poverty
Labour will not establish any nuclear
facility in the state. We will continue
to oppose the Sellafield plant and
other installations in the UK which
pose a risk to our people.

Tackling fuel and
energy poverty
In the medium-term, our proposals
will result in a cleaner, more secure,
more affordable supply of heat and
electricity to Irish homes. However,
Labour will also take immediate
action to alleviate the risk of fuel
poverty in the short term by reinvesting €40 million from the
carbon tax to alleviate fuel poverty,
and by developing a national fuel
poverty strategy as set out in
Labour’s Fuel Poverty and Energy
Conservation Bill.
Labour will also direct the
Commission for Energy Regulation
to implement a fairer disconnection
policy through the use of prepayment meters, and to develop
a fair policy in relation to
disconnection fees.

A sustainable waste policy
Ireland needs a national waste
management strategy that is
environmentally sustainable, that
reduces costs for businesses and
consumers, and that creates jobs.
Labour’s waste policy will adhere
to the EU waste hierarchy. Labour
favours a coherent approach to
waste management that minimises
the waste going to landfill, and that
maximises the resources that can be
recovered from it.

28

At national level, Labour will
facilitate the coordination of
Regional Waste Management Plans
in order to ensure households
and businesses have a minimum
standard of waste services, and also
to provide certainty to investors.
Labour will also investigate the
potential for a virtual waste
‘clearing house’, where companies
involved in the recycling or reuse
of waste can bid for material. This
measure will also provide clarity
for investors as to the potential for
new waste-related businesses.
In order to address Ireland’s
obligations under the EU landfill
directive, Labour will explore the
introduction of a ‘cap and trade’
scheme that would phase in the
auctioning of permits for landfill.
Labour will also drive a waste
reduction programme through the
extension of producer responsibility
initiatives, and a levy on packaging.
Labour will consider placing a product
levy on hard-to-recycle objects.
Specific producer responsibility
requirements will be introduced
for construction and demolition
projects over a certain threshold,
with recycling and waste
management requirements
enforced through mandatory
compliance bonds that can be
refunded at the end of the project.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

In order to improve the waste
collection service available to
householders and businesses
nationwide, and to improve the
amount and quality of materials
available for recycling and re-use,
Labour will make local authorities
legally responsible for the collection
of household waste. Instead of
multiple operators competing within
local authorities, operators will
compete to deliver a service to every
household in the local authority area,
as recommended by the ESRI. Local
authorities can also compete against
private operators for this market, in
which case the contract would be
awarded by an independent assessor.
These contracts would stipulate
a minimum service to be offered
nationwide, and a public service
obligation, including a fee waiver
scheme for low-income households.
However, licences would be flexible
enough to allow for localised
waste management needs and
opportunities.

Ensuring access to safe
water
Security of access to clean drinking
water is essential for public health.
This has been undermined by
recent scandals of polluted water
supplies, and drought caused by
extreme weather.
Labour does not favour water
charges, which do not address the
immediate needs of those who
currently receive intermittent or poor
water supplies. Labour will continue
to invest in the water services
programme as part of the capital
budget, focusing on minimising
treated water lost through leakage.

Enhancing the quality of
our environment
Everyone has the right to
enjoy a clean, healthy, peaceful
environment. Labour will clamp
down on environmental crime,
such as illegal dumping and graffiti,
and strengthen laws against noise
pollution to deal with noise from
neighbouring residents, allow for
on the spot fines, and provide for
mediation between neighbours.
Labour will ensure relevant
government departments integrate
biodiversity into their plans, policy
and actions, and legislate to better
protect our coastal zones. Our
countryside and coastlines are
positive amenities for tourism, and
Labour will work in partnership
with local stakeholders to ensure
reasonable and safe access to them.
Labour will continue the
implementation of national
and European legislation to
enhance biodiversity and improve
conservation. Labour will also
complete the ratification of the
Aarhus Convention on access to
information, public participation
in decision-making and access to
justice in environmental matters.

Labour will make local
authorities legally responsible
for the collection of
household waste

29

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs
Infrastructure for
the 21st Century
Time for change

Behind Fianna Fáil’s rhetoric of the ‘Smart Economy’ is
the reality of Ireland’s poor performance in almost every
international league table. Labour’s broadband strategy
will extend next generation broadband speeds across
Ireland, allowing us to embrace cloud computing, e-health,
e-transport, e-learning, improve on our energy efficiency
and position Ireland as a world leader in communications
innovation. Together with rebalancing transport policy to
favour public transport, Labour will lay the foundations for a
greener, more sustainable economy.

06

The first steps
•	 F acilitate the establishment of a new
company, NetCo, which would begin the rollout of next generation broadband	
•	 E
 mpower the regulator, ComReg, to ensure
all broadband suppliers provide regular data
on speeds, and end inaccurate advertising of
broadband speeds	
•	 Address the growing problem of digital literacy	
•	 P
 rotect local postal services by legislating for a
comprehensive Universal Service Obligation	
•	 R
 evise the National Development Plan to
prioritise public transport projects that
deliver the best value for money, reduce road
congestion, and reduce greenhouse gases

30

Better value first
generation broadband

Ireland’s biggest obstacle to
delivering next generation broadband
is the prohibitive cost of investing in
a new, next generation network. To
address that market failure, Labour
will facilitate the establishment of
a company, NetCo, which will allow
investors to share the risk of investing
in a new network.

ComReg will be mandated to
continue to lower the price of LocalLoop Unbundling. To further drive
value for consumers, ComReg will
require all broadband providers to
publish average speeds for each
package. We will also introduce a new
government rating system so that
home owners and tenants can assess
broadband facilities easily, and to
restrict misleading advertisements
relating to monthly caps.

This cooperative company would
be a vehicle for the roll-out of next
generation broadband, connecting
the majority of users to fibre optic
cables which will allow speeds
100 Mpb/s and greater. The vast
majority of homes would be
directly connected to the fibre
network, with a wireless solution
only being offered in remote
areas. This network would replace
the aging copper network that is
currently in existence.

Labour will facilitate private
companies to invest in a next
generation network

NetCo would own the passive
elements of the infrastructure,
but would be barred from
simultaneously providing broadband
services, so as not to create a
monopoly. Telecoms operators and
retailers would be charged the same
rate to access the network. However,
initial investors in the network
would be charged a preferential rate
in order to incorporate the risk of
their initial investment.
This cooperative approach to
investing private funds in the fibre
network has been successfully
exploited in Switzerland, and
through a public-private venture in
the Netherlands.

31

Developing Ireland
as an IP hub
Labour supports the development
of an International Content Services
Centre in Ireland, and its potential
to make Ireland a European hub for
the dissemination of Intellectual
Property. We will work at European
level to ensure that rights clearance
is standardised, to provide for
a transparent and competitive
market in Intellectual Property
across the EU.
Labour will also work towards the
development of EU-wide standards
for digitisation and archiving, in
order to make the EU a world leader
in digital content management.

Maintaining public
service broadcasting
Labour supports and values public
service broadcasting, which has
always been a fundamental
cornerstone of the Irish
broadcasting system. It promotes
diversity, social and cultural values
that are essential to a properly
functioning democracy. Labour
will uphold these values as Ireland
makes the transition to digital
television and radio, ensuring that
access to, and the quality of public
service broadcasting, are protected.
Labour will examine the role, and
the collection of, the TV license fee

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Delivering Next
Generation Broadband

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

in light of existing and projected
convergence of broadcasting
technologies.

Regulating for the future
of broadcasting
Telecommunications regulatory
and licensing matters are currently
handled by ComReg, whereas
broadcasting regulation and
licenses will be the responsibility
of the Broadcasting Authority of
Ireland. Given the convergence of
technology in this sector – i.e. video
on demand, mobile broadband –
we will merge the Broadcasting
Authority of Ireland and ComReg to
form one regulatory body.
This new pan-regulatory body
will also have responsibility for
protecting consumers from ‘rip off’
charges and for Quality Assurance.

Ensuring the survival of
print media in Ireland
Given the intense pressures
that newspaper and broadcast
media currently face, a detailed
and informed policy discussion
is required to ensure the future
survival of a strong indigenous
media presence in Ireland.
The Department of Communications,
Energy and Natural Resources will
engage in a structured dialogue on the
future challenges faced by the print
and broadcast media in Ireland, with
broad input from industry, politics, and
consumer and civic groups.

Sustaining a universal
postal service
In light of the proposed liberalisation
of the postal services, Labour
believes that a universal postal
service is essential, in particular
for rural communities and those
disadvantaged communities affected
by the digital divide. A commercially
viable, profitable and efficient An
Post is key to the long-term viability

of the postal market. Labour will
ensure that the Postal Services Bill
provides for a clear commitment to
the universal service obligation.
Labour will implement the
recommendations of the all-party
agreed Oireachtas Committee
Postcodes Report.

Making transport more
sustainable
Labour’s vision for Ireland’s travel
and transport system is for one
that is modern, reliable, integrated,
accessible and safe.
All planned transport infrastructure
projects, including Public-Private
Partnerships, will be subject to a
cost benefit analysis. Based on this
analysis, investment in transport
infrastructure that provides the best
value for money, and that reduces
carbon emissions from transport,
will be prioritised.
In light of the damage caused to
roads by recent extreme weather,
Labour will allocate, on a once-off
basis, a portion of the existing roads
budget to prioritise repair of those
secondary roads most affected.
Cycling and walking will be at the
heart of any future sustainable
transport network. Labour will
provide for contiguous cycling
routes for commuters, and safe
school cycle routes. The safety

needs of cyclists will be taken into
account in enhanced road junction
design, improved signage and
road maintenance. Labour will also
introduce legislation to strengthen
the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and
public transport commuters in the
planning process and the transport
system.
In order to provide for a public
transport infrastructure that
grows with our population, we
will introduce legislation to ensure
that all large new residential and
commercial developments will have
integrated transport services as part
of their planning permission.
The Dublin Transport Authority Act
and the Public Transport Regulation
Act will also be amended to require
Development Plans, Local Area
Plans and rezoning applications to
make provision for public transport
services if the population of the
areas affected reaches or is planned
to reach a specified threshold.

More efficient public
transport
Bus services will continue to be the
most cost effective and most flexible
way of delivering public transport
both in cities and in rural areas.
Investment in public transport will
focus on the further development
of Quality Bus Networks, and Park
and Ride facilities. Labour will also
explore the development of the Bus

Labour’s vision for Ireland’s
travel and transport system
is for one that is modern,
reliable, integrated, accessible
and safe
32

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour will explore the
development of the Bus Rapid
Transit model in our cities
Rapid Transit model in our cities,
which can replicate the speed and
comfort of light rail at a fraction of
the cost.
Labour will complete the roll-out
of the Integrated Ticketing System
on all modes of transport. Labour
will also complete the planned
implementation of Real Time
Passenger Information at bus stops
in Dublin and Cork, with a view
to extending this service to other
regions as resources allow.
Rural transport is essential to
prevent social exclusion, help rural
business and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Labour will seek
to maintain the Rural Transport
Programme and make integrated
rural transport a key responsibility
for the National Transport Authority.
Labour supports the development
of a revised framework strategy for
the taxi industry under the National
Transport Authority. Labour will defer
the introduction of the Nine Year
Rule on compulsory replacement of
taxis to 1 January 2012, and end the
second-hand market in taxi licences.

the current and projected needs of
ocean energy providers.
Air transport is of vital national
strategic importance to Ireland.
Maintaining strong competitiveness,
and regional connectivity, in the
airline market will be a priority.

Making our roads safer
Labour will support the Road Safety
Authority in the implementation of
the Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012.
In particular, Labour supports the
implementation of the Graduated
Driver Licensing System for the
training, testing and licensing of
new drivers. Labour will introduce
the legislation necessary to activate
these proposals.
Labour will overhaul and consolidate
the Road Traffic Acts to maximise
their effectiveness, and carry out an
audit of the national road network
to ensure that all road surfaces,
signage and traffic signals comply
with the highest safety standards.

Keeping Ireland connected
An island nation that exports 80%
of all it produces must have secure
shipping lines for international
connectivity. Labour will review
our seaport operations to ensure
that Ireland has adequate shipping
capacity in the medium to longterm and that our seaports have
management structures and financial
stability to carry out their mandate.
This review will also take into account

33

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs

Growing Jobs in Food,
Agriculture and Fisheries
Time for change

Ireland has an opportunity to make a quantum leap in
food production through the export of food products. Irish
agriculture needs to position itself to take advantage of
new markets, a growing world population and a move
towards more market-driven policies at EU level, which is
pushing up demand for quality food products. The agrifood sector is one of Ireland’s biggest employers, it is
largely Irish-owned, and it is nationwide. Labour’s plan is
to transform one of our traditional strengths into a 21st
century driver of economic growth.

07

The first steps
•	 S
 cale up Ireland’s agricultural productivity
through the development of the dairy and
meat sectors	
•	 R
 educe the age profile of the agri-food sector
and increase the size and productivity of
farms through encouraging farm partnerships	
•	 I mplement the recommendations of the Food
Harvest 2020 report	
•	 F ocus on developing new brands for Irish food,
including an eco brand and local brands	
•	 D
 evelop Ireland as a European hub for seafood
processing

34

This is a period of radical change in
the agriculture sector. The reform of
the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
poses significant challenges for the
Irish agriculture and agri-food sectors,
which we must be ready to meet. The
overall impact of the CAP proposals
will result in a more market-driven
industry, with an emphasis on the
need for cost competitiveness for
those sectors of the food industry
focusing on commodity markets.
In government, Labour will work to
retain our €1.3 billion CAP funding
envelope. Our negotiating position at
EU level is predicated on retaining this
envelope.
Labour also accepts the need for an
extensive bi-lateral exchange with
other countries to ensure that any
changes in policy at EU level and at
the World Trade Organisation must
not undermine the principle of direct
payments to food producers.

Labour will focus on
developing the full potential
of Ireland’s dairy sector
Growing the dairy and
meat sectors
The anticipated CAP reforms will
mean economies of scale will
become more important. Facilitating
consolidation in the dairy and
beef sector will be a high priority.
Increasing our focus on scale
and competitiveness will further
emphasise the need for producers and
processors to focus on commodity or
mainstream markets.
Labour will focus on developing the
full potential of Ireland’s dairy sector,
by working with the sector to increase

35

take-up of new technologies and
evidence-based practice that result in
higher milk yields at lower cost.
Labour also favours more marketbased pricing to reflect improved
products and innovation in the
meat and dairy sectors, and the
development of more integrated
supply chains.

Improving farm
productivity
Ireland’s scale at producer level lags
behind our major competitors, and
with an ageing farm population
the need for structural change will
continue. Labour favours a model
of Single Farm Payments that will
reward innovation and see further
inclusion of younger farmers.
The only way to create scale is to buy
or lease, the potential for which is
limited by the structure of Ireland’s
farm holdings. We can give farmers
approaching retirement, those who no
longer wish to farm, or beneficiaries
of farms, the opportunity to retain
an income from their land, while also
maximising the overall potential
productivity of Irish holdings.
Labour will develop mechanisms
for farmers, non rural residents
with inherited land and older single
farmers to vest their holdings in a
local co-operative farm partnership
where they would retain ownership,
share in the profits of such
partnerships and are informed
regularly of progress and plans.
They would be free at any stage, given
adequate notice, to withdraw their
holding from the co-op. These farm
units could be a powerful source of
local employment and could have the
scale to develop and produce branded
produce.
Such holdings should be supported
and included for Direct Payments
where possible and especially in
cases where Community Supported
Agriculture Models are developed.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Preparing for change

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Growing our
agri-food sector
A growing and more affluent world
population is an opportunity for Ireland
to expand its food exports.
Labour supports the recommendations
of the Harvest Food 2020 Report.
In addition to implementing these
recommendations, our agri-food 	
policy will focus on the development of
the premium artisan food market and
of Ireland as a world class food tourism
destination.
Branding of Irish food will be
developed, such as eco-food labelling,
enhanced organic branding, and the
development of local brands. New
Irish food businesses will be developed
through a series of coordinated efforts
across the food sector and state
agencies. For example, the building
of pilot plant kitchens to allow food
producers to develop and manufacture
products on a small scale; the further
development of farmers’ markets; and
the development by Enterprise Ireland
of scaleable manufacturing solutions
for food businesses that have the
capacity to expand.
Labour will also seek to implement the
recommendations of the Eighth Report
of the Joint Committee on Enterprise,
Trade and Innovation relating to
growing employment in the agri-food
sector.
Labour will support evidence-based
development of the agri-food sector
through continued support for R&D,
and modernised education and
training options for those seeking to
work, or to upgrade their skills, in the
sector. Labour will also examine how
related subjects at second level could
be modernised to reflect new demands
and opportunities in the agri-food
sector.

A fair deal for producers
Labour will adopt a joined-up approach
to fostering a sustainable agri-food
sector in Ireland by examining both
the supply of, and demand for, Irish
food products. We will work with local

authorities to develop farmers’ markets,
and favour a sustainable planning
model that promotes diversity in the
food retail sector. We will also put the
current voluntary code providing for
greater transparency in the food supply
chain on a statutory footing.

Open to new ideas
Labour will actively welcome
constructive engagement by interested
stakeholders in growing our indigenous
farming, food and biofuel industries.
Labour also supports the proposals
by Irish Rural Link for the strategic
regionalisation of Irish agriculture
policy to maximise the development of
the sector.

Biofuels
The EU Renewable Energy Directive
sets out targets to ensure that Ireland’s
energy is provided from renewables by
2020. Labour wants to see indigenous
Irish industry take up production of
renewables to ensure those targets are
met. We support a land use strategy
which would swap a proportion
of ruminant grazing to perennial
energy crops, which will reduce
Ireland’s greenhouse gases. However,
Ireland is and will continue to be a
predominantly food producing and
exporting country.

Forestry
Labour recognises the importance of
forestry as a source of employment,
as a source of renewable energy, as
a public amenity, and as a means of
reducing our national carbon footprint.
Labour opposes the privatisation of
Coillte and the sale of publicly owned
forests.
Labour will set a planting target of
10,000 hectares per annum, and will
work with stakeholders to agree a
sustainable funding model to achieve
this aim.

Animal welfare
Labour will ensure that animal welfare
is enhanced and protected, and will
strengthen legislation on animal
cruelty.

36

Coastal Communities,
Fisheries & Marine
Environment
The marine sector faces major
challenges in the years ahead, 	
but it is also an area of major economic
potential.
Labour’s priority will be to develop
Ireland as a European hub for
seafood processing, which will create
sustainable, value-added jobs in coastal
communities.
Labour will also develop an Irish
seafood strategy to grow the
market profile and demand for Irish
seafood products. We will support
the development of sustainable
aquaculture and fish farms by
streamlining the licensing process
and reducing, as much as possible,
the associated bureaucracy. To further
assist the development of the sector,
responsibility for maritime policy will,
as far as is practicable, be concentrated
in one department.
Labour will establish a Sea Fisheries
Sustainability Impact Assessment
based on consultation with all major
stakeholders. This report will be
brought before the Dáil on an annual
basis before EU fisheries negotiations
commence, and will ensure that there
is a regular evaluation of Irish fish
stocks and the effectiveness of current
policy and quotas.
Labour is open to the experience and
expertise of those whose livelihoods
depend on maritime activity. The
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Food will engage in an ongoing
structured consultation with industry
representatives, the marine scientific
community and other stakeholders to
enable them to contribute to national
maritime policy.
Finally, safety at sea and decent
working conditions must underpin the
development of the fisheries sector.
Labour in government will ensure that
the Irish Coast Guard has access to an
Emergency Towing Vessel.

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs
Growing Jobs in Tourism
Time for change

Ireland has a strong tourism product, but we have
lost our competitive edge in recent years. Tourism
is a sustainable industry, capable of providing jobs
at every skill level, in every corner of the country.
Labour’s plan to grow jobs in tourism
takes a fresh approach to providing
tourist infrastructure, new ways of
using technology to enhance visitors’
stay here, and a joined-up approach to
finding new markets.

The first steps
•	 G
 row new markets, including long-haul
markets and niche markets, such as activity
holidays, eco tourism, food tourism and
cultural tourism	
•	 M
 ake regaining market share in Ireland’s top
overseas markets a priority	
•	 E
 xtend free off-peak travel to all over-66
visitors on all CIE services	
•	 U
 se the web and smart phone apps to provide
innovative products for tourists	
•	 D
 eal with over-supply in the hotel sector to
normalise the market

08

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Focus on growing new
markets
Labour will maintain the Tourism
Marketing Fund as an essential
pillar of our tourism strategy, 	
and will introduce a systematic
auditing system to ensure the best
return on Exchequer spending.
Revitalising Ireland’s brand identity
abroad will be a priority for Labour
in government.
Growth in global tourism in the
21st century will predominately
come from non-traditional markets,
especially Asia. Marketing campaigns
will be developed in emerging long
haul markets such as China, Russia,
India, Japan and the Middle East,
using the Tourism Marketing Fund.
This will be complemented by a
broader translation policy and a
reformed tourist visa process.

Revitalising Ireland’s brand
identity abroad will be
a priority for Labour in
government
Niche markets will be developed,
including activity holidays, such
as golf and surf tourism; eco
tourism; and food tourism. To
exploit the potential of business
tourism, Tourism Ireland will be
mandated to develop a dedicated
service organising and promoting
sightseeing in and beyond
conference locations for 	
conference delegates.
‘Event tourism’ will also be
prioritised, with strategic planning
and prioritisation of funding to bring
major international fairs and events
to Ireland such as the Volvo Ocean
Race or the Solheim Cup.

38

As part of an initiative to encourage
domestic event tourism, Labour
will make the Culture Night
Initiative a twice yearly event,
and introduce a National Lottery
Funding Anniversary Day, whereby
all facilities which have received
funding from the National Lottery
will open their doors to the public
free of charge.

Regain market share in
traditional markets
70% of Ireland’s overseas visitors
come from Britain, the US, Germany
and France. Recovery of market share
in Britain, and increasing penetration
in the other three markets will be a
key priority in a revamped tourism
strategy.

Improve tourist
infrastructure
To encourage tourists to travel
around Ireland, a free travel scheme
for every visitor over 66 at off
peak times will be introduced on
all CIE services, from within CIE’s
existing budget. Coach tourism
infrastructure will be further
developed to encourage organised
tourism. Improved ferry connectivity,
with more frequency and additional
routes, will be encouraged as an
alternative to air travel.
The Department of Tourism, Culture
and Sport will be mandated to
conduct an assessment of the quality
and effectiveness of existing signage,
with a view to improving the tourist
experience and increasing visits to
attractions close to major sites.

Using technology to
improve our tourism
product
Improving the e-capability of our
tourism product will be a priority.
This will begin with the upgrading
of the Discover Ireland website, to
improve online integration between
attractions, accommodation,

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Improving the e-capability
of our tourism product
will be a priority
and transport providers, to allow
potential customers all the
information they require via one site.
Labour will also focus existing
expenditure on tourism on other
web-based tools which support
the tourism industry, and will
encourage innovation in this area
by digital media companies. This
includes developing information
platforms on the internet for
various niche audiences, such as a
Surf Ireland or a Golf Ireland web
portal, or new web-based tools
such as an interactive Irish tourism
application for smart phones.

Normalising the
hotel sector

Making change and
jobs happen
As part of our wider Comprehensive
Spending Review, Labour will
conduct a critical assessment of the
functions, systems and efficiency
of the semi state agencies in the
tourism sector with a view to
establishing the optimum support
required by the tourism industry,
which offers the best value for
money for the taxpayer.
Labour also supports the
establishment of an industry-led
tourism recovery taskforce to drive
growth in the tourism sector, as
recommended by the Irish Tourism
Industry Confederation.

The disastrous impact of tax breaks
for the hotel sector that served as a
tax avoidance mechanism will need
to be addressed. Labour will require
NAMA to conduct an independent
review of the hotel sector, and use
this as a basis for decisions on which
hotels it should continue to support.
Labour will also consider allowing
certain hotels that wish to change
use to a community facility to exit the
hotel capital tax relief scheme and be
exempt from the claw-back of the tax
relief foregone. The objective will be
to achieve, in consultation with the
industry, an orderly reduction in the
number of hotel beds.

39

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

40

www.labour.ie/manifesto

REFORM

41

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Reform

Reforming Politics
Time for change

Labour’s pledge is that Ireland will never again
be vulnerable to the kinds of abuses of corporate
and political power that have risked our country’s
sovereignty. To restore confidence at home and
abroad in public governance, Ireland must make
significant changes in the culture and framework
within which business is conducted.
That applies both to the formal rules
of corporate governance and to the
relationship between money and
politics. Labour will rid Ireland of its
‘Crony Capitalism’ image, and restore
trust in our democracy.

09

The first steps
•	 E
 nd political cronyism by opening up positions
on state boards to all qualified candidates, and
require appointments to be scrutinised by the Dáil	
•	 M
 ake good corporate governance a legal
condition of being listed on the Irish stock
exchange	
•	 S
 ignificantly reduce political donations and lower
the threshold for disclosure of donations	
•	 R
 egulate political lobbying, including ex-Ministers
and senior civil servants working as private
lobbyists after leaving public service	
•	 A
 Whistleblower’s Law to protect those in the
public and private sector who expose corruption
or misconduct

42

Labour will end the system whereby
appointments to state boards are
used as a form of political patronage
and for rewarding insiders. In future,
appointment to boards must be
based on a demonstrable capacity to
do the job.
Labour intends to start this process
immediately. To that end, the
Labour Party will reserve the right
to seek the resignation of all those
appointed to State Boards since
22 November 2010. Labour will
publicly advertise all vacancies, and
invite applications from the public.
A database of individuals who are
willing to serve, together with their
qualifications, will be established.
Oireachtas committees will
consider the suitability of
nominated candidates, including
having candidates appear before
the committee, and it will be a
condition of appointment that
board members appear before
committees as required.

Labour will make good
corporate governance the
law, not an optional extra
Cleaning up corporate
cronyism
Labour will make good corporate
governance the law, not an optional
extra. Fianna Fáil is happy with
voluntary codes of regulation.
Labour believes this is a blank
cheque for corporate misconduct,
and do not now provide sufficient
reassurance to investors, who need
to be convinced that Ireland is a fair,
transparent place to do business.

43

Labour will enact legislation to
provide for a binding code of
practice for corporate governance,
which will be obligatory for
companies wishing to be listed on
the Irish stock exchange.

Ending the link between
big money and politics
Labour will end the link between big
money and politics. It is not enough
to fold up the Galway tent. We have
to end the culture that created it: a
culture where money can buy access
to power. To restore its citizens’ faith
in democracy, and our country’s
reputation abroad, we need to send
a clear message that influence in
Ireland is not for sale.
Labour will introduce spending
limits for all elections, including
Presidential elections and
constitutional referendums and
impose spending limits on political
parties for a period of six months
in advance of scheduled Local,
European, General and 	
Presidential Elections.
Labour’s legislation will
significantly reduce the limit on
political donations to political
parties and candidates to €2,500
and €1,000 respectively, and
require disclosure of all aggregate
sums above €1,500 and €600
respectively.

Encouraging openness
and transparency
Transparency is one of the most
powerful weapons against
corruption. Labour will introduce
Whistleblower’s Protection
legislation that will protect an
employee who reports misconduct
from losing their job, or being
otherwise penalised, to encourage
greater transparency, both in
the public service and in private
institutions such as banks.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Ending political cronyism

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

It is in the public’s interest to know
who is paid to seek to influence
public policy and decision making, at
national and local level. Labour will,
for the first time in Ireland, regulate
the practice of political lobbying.
Labour will introduce a statutory
register of lobbyists and a statutory
code governing the practice of
lobbying. This code will make it
illegal for an ex-Minister or senior
public servant to lobby in their
previous sphere of influence for two
years after leaving their post.

Labour will restore the
Freedom of Information Act
so that it is as comprehensive
as was originally intended

Labour will restore the Freedom
of Information Act so that it is as
comprehensive as was originally
intended. The fee structure for
Freedom of Information requests
will be reformed so that cost
does not discourage individuals
and organisations from seeking
information, and the remit of the
Freedom of Information and the
Ombudsman Acts will be extended
to the Garda Síochána, the Central
Bank and other bodies significantly
funded from the public purse, that
are currently excluded.
The Official Secrets Act will also be
repealed, with criminal sanction only
retained for breaches which involve
a serious threat to the vital interests
of the State.

44

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Reform
Reforming government
Time for change

This is the second time in a generation that Ireland
has been confronted by a profound economic crisis,
that is a direct result of bad governance. It is not
enough to remove Fianna Fáil’s grip on government
– we have to change government itself.
We need to put power back in
the hands of the Irish people, and
make practical changes so that our
government, at every level, better
serves the people’s interests.

The first steps
•	 A
 Constitutional Convention to draw up a new
Constitution for the Ireland of the 21st century	
•	 A
 bolish the Seanad, but make the Dáil
stronger, with a longer working day, a longer
working week, less holidays, and with more
powers to hold the Government to account	
•	 M
 inisters and senior civil servants to be made
legally accountable for decisions they make	
•	 A
 n Independent Fiscal Advisory Council to
advise government on the economic impact of
its policy decisions	
•	 R
 estore democratic accountability to local
government, and devolve more decisionmaking powers to local communities

10

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

A fresh start with a
new Constitution
It is time for a fundamental review
of our Constitution, by the people to
whom it belongs. Labour proposes a
Constitutional Convention, a coming
together of all strands of Irish society
to rewrite our Constitution.
The Constitutional Convention
would have an open mandate, and
comprise 90 members. Thirty of its
members would be drawn from the
Oireachtas, thirty would be members
of civil society organisations and
other people with relevant legal or
academic expertise, and thirty would
be ordinary citizens, chosen by lot.
The mandate would be to review the
Constitution and draft a reformed
one within a year.

Labour proposes a
Constitutional Convention,
a coming together of all
strands of Irish society to
rewrite our Constitution

An independent
electoral commission
Labour will establish an
independent Electoral and
Public Offices Commission that
will subsume the Standards
in Public Offices Commission;
the powers of Referendum and
Constituency Commissions;
and the responsibilities of local
authorities and the Department
of the Environment in relation to
the electoral register and elections.
Labour will also revise the terms
of reference for the revision of
constituencies to ensure the fairest
and most proportionate distribution
of seats possible.

46

More efficient,
more effective, more
democratic government
Labour believes that a nation of our
size, scale and composition only
needs one strong, single-chamber,
directly elected parliament with
real legislative and oversight
powers to effectively do the
people’s business in the 21st
Century. We will be proposing to
the Constitutional Convention that
the Seanad be abolished.
As part of Labour’s Comprehensive
Spending Review, all quangos and
bodies significantly funded by the
taxpayer will have to justify their
existence as a separate entity. Any
new bodies established will have a
sunset clause, that requires them
to either justify their continued
existence, or be folded up.
Labour will also introduce a package
of changes that will bring about a
50 per cent increase in Dáil sitting
days. Dáil Éireann will in future
meet four days a week. There will be
a summer recess of just six weeks
and significantly reduced breaks
at Christmas and Easter. We will
abandon the practice of providing a
“mid-term break”.
The Dáil will be made more effective
and more democratic through
reforms that give opposition TDs and
backbench government TDs more
power to propose and scrutinise
laws. Elected representatives will
have stronger powers to hold
government, and publicly-funded
state bodies to account.
Citizens will also be able to petition
the Oireachtas to look into issues
of national importance, similar
to their rights to petition the
European Parliament.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Holding Ministers and
senior civil servants
to account
Labour will introduce new
legislation making Ministers
and senior civil servants legally
accountable for their decisions,
and for the management of their
departments in the public interest.
Where a responsibility is delegated
through several civil service grades,
each grade will be held accountable
for their element of it.
Restrictions on the nature and
extent of evidence by civil servants
to Oireachtas committees will be
scrapped, and replaced with new
guidelines for civil servants that
reflect the reality of authority
delegated to them, and their
personal accountability for the way it
is exercised. Labour will also publish
the Attorney General’s advice to
government when it is appropriate
to do so.

Embedding fiscal
responsibility in
Government
Labour will put an end to the boom
and bust economics that defined
Fianna Fáil’s approach to governance.
Labour will establish an independent
Fiscal Advisory Council, separated
from fiscal decision-makers in
government, that would undertake
macroeconomic and fiscal
projections and monitoring. The
Fiscal Advisory Council functions
would include identifying and
advising on cyclical and countercyclical fiscal policies and structural
deficits; the cyclical or temporary
nature of particular revenues; and
the need to maintain an appropriate
and effective tax base. All of its
recommendations will be published.
Labour in government will also bring
forward and reform the annual
Estimates cycle, so that it becomes
more timely, transparent and

Labour will introduce new
legislation making Ministers
and senior civil servants legally
accountable for their decisions
relevant. The annual Estimates will in
future distinguish between monies
being allocated to maintaining the
existing level of service for existing
programmes and money to support
new programmes or policy decisions.
Proposals for new expenditure
programmes will be accompanied
by a five-year projection of costs and
benefits. The Book of Estimates will
also be accompanied by a detailed
performance report on what the
previous year’s spending had
achieved. It will also give details of
the level of performance achieved
by agencies under service delivery
agreements with government.

Dáil investigations instead
of costly tribunals
Labour will establish a strong, 	
bi-partisan Investigations,
Oversight and Petitions Committee
of the Oireachtas with the 	
power to investigate matters 	
of national concern.
The Committee would receive
parliamentary petitions from
individuals and groups in the
community seeking the redress of
grievances connected with the public
services of the State and with the
public administration generally.
Where particular petitions
warranted detailed investigation, the
Committee would be empowered to
order such investigations through
a Parliamentary Investigator,
who would be appointed from
within the public service. Where

47

the Investigator was unable to
establish clear facts, the report of a
parliamentary investigator would
if necessary be followed by either
a formal parliamentary inquiry or
other statutory investigation, as
appropriate.

Reforming local
government
Local government needs significant
reform. Its approach to delivering
services can be fragmented and
costly, and it is prevented from
adapting to local needs by excessive
control from central government.
Labour fundamentally believes
in devolving power to local
government, and putting local
communities in control. That is why
Labour is committed to reforming
local government to make it more
democratic, more effective in
responding to local needs, and better
value for money.

Putting local communities
in control
Labour will return democratic
accountability to elected councillors.
The position of County Manager will
be abolished and replaced with that
of Chief Executive, with a limited
range of executive functions. The
purpose of the Chief Executive will
be to facilitate the implementation
of democratically decided policy.
As resources allow, Labour favours
the introduction of democratically
elected mayors, beginning with an
elected mayor for Dublin.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour will give councillors
the power to seek reports
from, and question in public,
the providers of public
services in their area
A democratically-decided Regional or
City Plan will replace the top-down
Strategic Planning Guideline model.
Labour will give councillors the
power to seek reports from, and
question in public, the providers
of public services in their area.
Councillors will also be empowered
to question private sector service
providers, such as internet and
digital TV providers, local banks
or private schools, on their public
service remit.
The voting age in local elections will
be reduced to 16, so that teenagers
have more of a say in local services.

invest a proportion of that saving in
local initiatives.

More efficient delivery
of local services
In the longer term, Labour favours
a fundamental reorganisation of
local governance structures that
will allow for the devolution of
much greater decision-making
powers over local services to local
people. This restructuring could
give local communities more
control over transport and traffic,
economic development, educational
infrastructure, and local responses to
crime and local healthcare needs.

Better value for money
The Local Government Director 	
of Audit will be directed to 	
produce an annual report 	
covering all of his functions to
the Oireachtas Committee on the
Environment. This will determine
where local government can 	
produce greater efficiencies.
Labour will also examine what
services could be converged between
two or more local authorities, such
as technology support, human
resources and fire services. Labour
will also introduce a single national
building inspectorate service.
Local authorities that deliver
efficiencies, either alone or through
sharing services, over and above that
which is required will be able to re-

48

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Reform
Reforming Public Services
Time for change

The Labour Party believes that the most important
needs of our society should not be left solely to the
market to provide. The values that underpin public
services are different to those of for-profit private
businesses, but that does not mean public services
cannot be delivered efficiently, cost-effectively, and
when and where users need them.
It is time to reform and
modernise our public service
so that it is fit for purpose
in a fair society, and a
rejuvenated economy.

The first steps
•	  An Office of Public Sector Reform, headed 	
by a Minister at Cabinet, established for a
limited period, to get the job of public 	
service reform done	
•	 A
 reduction in the number of quangos 	
and duplication of agencies and 	
government departments	
•	 G
 overnment departments and agencies
accountable for meeting joined-up
government objectives	
•	 F ewer management layers in the civil
and public service, but more freedom for
managers to manage staff and budgets	
•	 O
 ne phone number, one website or one public
office for multiple public services, to make it
easier for customers to find what they need

11

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Driving reform
Labour will establish an Office
of Public Sector Reform with
responsibility for all matters in
relation to the public service
and headed by a Minister who
sits at Cabinet. This Office will
have particular responsibility for
planning and implementing the
change agenda and for ensuring
that all aspects of that agenda are
communicated fully to the public
and to public sector staff.

A Comprehensive Spending
Review of all public
spending
Labour will undertake a
Comprehensive Spending Review of
all government spending to assess
its effectiveness in achieving desired
outcomes, and its value for money
for the taxpayer.
As part of that review, Labour
will examine the number, range
and activities of bodies funded
significantly from the public purse,
including at local government
level, and reduce their numbers
where appropriate. In future,
when proposing a new agency, the
relevant government department
will have to prove that its functions
cannot be carried out within an
existing framework.

Labour will establish an
Office of Public Sector
Reform to drive change
in the public service

50

A more strategic approach
to government spending.
For ten years in government, Fianna
Fáil’s first response to any problem
was to throw money at it. This
lack of clear government priorities
meant that public spending was less
effective than it could have been.
Labour in government will provide
clear and unambiguous long,
medium and short term strategic
priorities, which will be clearly
communicated to the public service
and to citizens. Strategic priorities
will be translated into high level
goals for all relevant Departments,
on a ‘whole of government’ basis,
and in consultation with Ministers.
Performance indicators will be
identified to allow progress on the
high level priorities to be monitored.
Each government department
and public service agency will be
expected to demonstrate how
it will deliver on stated strategic
government objectives. Annual
reports of government departments
and state agencies will include
output statements and audited
financial accounts prepared on
generally accepted accounting
principles. The performance
information provided in output and
outcome-focused measurement
will feed into the decision making
process for future plans at political
and senior management level.

Devolving spending with
greater accountability
Labour will introduce increased
delegation of budgets, subject
to detailed plans, relevant
performance reporting and audited
accounts compiled in accordance
with generally accepted accounting
principles, that will allow managers
greater autonomy and increased
flexibility, aligned with greater
accountability.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Departmental and agency budgets
will be prepared for the medium
term as well as on an annual basis.
Detailed business cases will be
required for major projects, with
review and reporting requirements
built in to the plan. Sanctions will
be imposed at an early stage for
significant overruns.
In demanding better accountability,
Labour will change the current
emphasis on performance reporting
to performance management. All
medium to long-term projects that
involve significant public spending
will be subject to a cost benefit
analysis, and to ongoing evaluation.
Results of programme evaluations
will be published on a programme
evaluation website, and programmes
not meeting their objectives will be
wound down.

More modern
management and
staffing structures
The proliferation of management
grades in the civil service creates
huge gaps between the front line
and the decision makers, and creates
unnecessary internal bureaucracy.
Labour will review the grading
structure of civil service departments
and in the public service, and reduce
the number of management grades,
to move away from bureaucratic
box-ticking, and towards a
management structure that allows
for innovation and flexibility.

Labour will review the
grading structure of civil
service departments and in
the public service
with particular focus on strategic
management and evaluation,
project management, resource
management and communications.
High level strategic goals will be
reflected in individual goals in a
new performance management and
development system for staff.
Staff recognition schemes will
be developed and devolved, with
particular emphasis on team awards.
Staff will also be encouraged to put
forward suggestions for improving
service delivery and organisation
efficiency and effectiveness.
Public and civil service staff will be
encouraged to contribute their views
and suggestions for reform through
channels such as staff forums
and blogs. Incentives will be put
in place to promote good internal
communications and to ensure staff
are widely consulted within public
sector organisations and given the
opportunity to influence their work
and working environment.

More user-centred
service delivery

Public service managers will be
given greater autonomy in deciding
how they use staffing budgets
and resources to achieve agreed
outcomes. Labour will remove
barriers to mobility across the
public service, so that staff can be
matched to areas of greatest need
and to areas where their skills are
most appropriate.

Labour takes a “citizen-centred”
approach to public service reform.
Government services websites,
public offices, telephone services,
and helplines will be reconfigured to
facilitate access to the broad range
of government services through a
single point of contact.

The capacity of managers in the
public service will be improved
through management skills training

The Comprehensive Spending
Review will also seek the input of
civil and public servants, and the

51

users of public services, to assess
how frontline services could be made
better from the point of view of the
customer. The success of frontline
service delivery from a user’s point of
view will be central to a department
or agency’s performance review.
The Office of Public Service Reform
will be responsible for developing a
whole-of-government approach to
electronic service delivery. Websites
will be developed to provide
maximum information to the public
about progress on national and
departmental goals and facilitating
public comment and suggestions.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Reform
Reforming Social
Protection
Time for change

Labour’s plan to radically reform Ireland’s fragmented
job-seeking, training and welfare supports into a
single National Employment Service will put work
and training at the heart of social protection.
But we also need to tackle the
unemployment traps that keep
people in poverty, and ensure
that social protection is fair,
transparent, and that it works
for those who need it most.

12

The first steps
•	 R
 oot and branch efficiency reforms to
eliminate poverty traps, speed up social
protection claims, and save money	
•	 A
 major crackdown on welfare fraud, so
that the social protection system is fair and
transparent	
•	 R
 educe reliance on Rent Supplement in favour
of the Rental Accommodation Scheme, with
rents negotiated directly with landlords	
•	 C
 ut down on bureaucracy by replacing
multiple means tests with a single unified
means test	
•	 S
 hare the cost of social protection with
insurance companies where possible

52

Eliminating poverty from Irish
society is one of the core principles
of the Labour Party. Labour is
committed to tackling Ireland’s fiscal
crisis fairly, and will endeavour to
protect those most at risk of poverty.
As a first step, Labour will reverse
the cut in the minimum wage
implemented by Fianna Fáil and the
Green Party in government.
Labour will introduce new antipoverty targets with a particular
emphasis on carers, those living
alone and on people with a longterm disability. We will revise how
poverty is measured to give greater
weight to reasonable household
costs as opposed to the current
narrow focus on income.
Labour will complete and publish a
strategy to tackle fuel-poverty, and a
new national anti-poverty strategy.

Labour will reverse the
cut in the minimum wage
implemented by Fianna Fáil
and the Green Party
in government
Eliminating poverty traps
The Labour Party will tackle poverty
and unemployment traps in the
social protection system by:	

•	 P
 roviding for a far more
extensive and frequent
engagement with jobseekers
through interviews and
consultations.
•	 C
 hanging operational
guidelines for deciding officers.
•	 R
 eforming eligibility for Back
to Education Allowance.
•	 I mproving information
available to jobseekers
•	 P
 romoting existing in-work
benefit schemes.
Labour will issue clear new
guidelines to ensure the Habitual
Residence rule is applied consistently,
transparently, and fairly, with specific
guidelines to facilitate returning
emigrants. The Habitual Residence
rule will be abolished in the case
of family carers. Labour is also
committed to the completion and
publication of the Carers Strategy.
This economic crisis has exposed
the particular vulnerabilities of
people who are self-employed.
Labour will review the position
of the self-employed in the social
protection code.
Labour is committed to replacing the
One Parent Family Payment with a
parental allowance when resources
permit. We will cap the rates at
which moneylenders can lend.

A zero tolerance approach
to welfare fraud

•	 A
 mending the 30 hour
rule for Rent Supplement
and Mortgage Interest
Supplement for people
moving from welfare to work.	

The Labour Party believes that
fairness must be at the heart of
resolving our financial crisis. Labour
is committed to tackling Ireland’s
financial crisis so that the burden
does not, as far as is possible, fall on
those who are dependent on social
welfare for their income.

•	 A
 ctivating people on a
reduced week who refuse
extra day(s) employment

However, it is imperative that every
cent of our social welfare bill goes to
those who need it most.

53

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Tackling poverty

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour will implement a zero
tolerance policy in relation to welfare
fraud, underpinned by a major antifraud enforcement drive.
The integration of social welfare
supports for people of working age
and employment services will be
accompanied by more intensive
activation of people who are longterm social welfare claimants. As
well as more regular interviews with
advisors in the National Employment
Service, Labour will undertake other
anti-fraud measures, including a
public services card with photo ID,
the automatic registration of fathers
on birth certificates, and better
sharing of data across government
departments and agencies.

Getting better value
for money
Labour will introduce efficiencies in
the social protection system that will
deliver a better service for users, and
save the Exchequer money.
Labour will progressively reduce
reliance on Rent Supplement, with
eligible recipients moving to the
Rental Accommodation Scheme. In
future, landlords will be paid directly
by the state or local authorities,
so that rents can be negotiated to
achieve the best value for taxpayers,
while a new deposit retention scheme
will yield further savings. Rent
will only be paid to tax-compliant
landlords offering decent quality
accommodation, to root out fraud.

Labour will divert staff from
elsewhere in the public service
to clear the social welfare
appeals backlog, and introduce a
consolidated appeals process, to save
on unsuccessful appeals.
The process of multiple means
tests for the same individual or
household will be replaced with a
single, unified means test, with a
single ‘change of circumstances’
adjustment if required.
In future, household benefits
packages will be put out to tender,
so that the Exchequer benefits from
reduced prices.
Labour will raise the issue of the
payment of Child Benefit in respect
of non-resident children at EU level,
and seek to have the entitlement
modified to reflect the cost of living
where the child is resident. Labour
will examine all possible flexibility
within existing European legislation
to reduce the cost of this payment.

Sharing the cost of
social protection
Labour will require private
institutions, which benefit indirectly
from social protection payments to
their clients, to cooperate in reducing
the total cost of social protection.
Insurance companies will be required
to compensate the Department
of Social Protection for illness or
disability payments arising from

Labour will implement a zero
tolerance policy in relation to
welfare fraud

54

traffic collisions or other such
accidents or personal injuries, where
an insurance policy exists, and
where the value of social welfare
entitlements are deducted from the
gross claim settlement.

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Reform
Reforming Policing
and Justice
Time for change

Crime has increased substantially within the last 25
years, serious drug use has spread nationwide, and even
though much crime goes unreported, the detection rate
is on the decrease. Re-offending rates are high and it
is the law-abiding community that suffers as a result.
There is no simplistic or quick fix, but there are solutions.
Labour will tackle crime focusing on five key areas:
protecting victims, strengthened legislation; tackling the
drugs crisis; reforming the Gardaí and a more effective
sentencing and prisons policy.

The first steps
•	 V
 ictims’ needs put at the heart of the criminal
justice system	
•	 D
 ealing firmly with offenders through
strengthened criminal justice legislation	
•	 T
 ackling both drugs supply and demand
through a revitalised National Drugs Strategy	
•	 R
 eforming the Gardaí to prioritise community
policing	
•	 E
 nsuring that the punishment fits the crime,
and benefits the community where possible

13

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Protecting victims
Delays in the bringing of cases to
trial must be tackled. Such delays
can mean that opportunities are
missed to respond to offending
behaviour before it becomes more
serious. These delays will be reduced
by reform of the court system, a
nationwide implementation of a
case management system, and
the appointment of more criminal
judges when resources allow.
Victims of crime are still often
treated by the criminal justice
system as no more than prosecution
witnesses. Labour will ensure that
victims and their needs are at the
heart of the justice process and that
their rights to information, advice
and other appropriate assistance are
met effectively and efficiently.
New sentencing legislation, which
will be introduced by the Labour
Party, will make putting the
victim in fear of injury a serious
aggravating factor in any offence
against the person.
Labour will oblige Gardaí to maintain
adequate contact, through identified
liaison officers, with victims of crime,
to report progress to victims on the
investigation and the prosecution of
their case and to ensure adequate
advance notice is given as to the
proposed release of offenders.

Labour will ensure that
victims and their needs are
at the heart of the justice
process

56

Strengthening the
criminal justice system
Labour’s objective is to have
a criminal justice system that
is fair, efficient, and that puts
victims of crime first. Labour
will strengthen the armoury of
criminal justice legislation in order
to ensure that the right balance
is arrived at between protecting
the community and providing for
appropriate safeguards. Stronger
legislation is only a part of the
solution, but it is a necessary part
of the community’s response to an
increasing crime problem. Labour’s
legislative programme will include
the following:
•	 A
 Proceeds of Crime
(Amendment) Bill to reduce
the time period CAB have
to wait before forfeiture of
Proceeds of Crime, from seven
years to two years.	
•	 A
 Witness Protection
Programme Bill to put
the Witness Protection
Programme on a statutory
basis.	
•	 M
 easures to halt white
collar criminals transferring
assets to spouses or others
– any such assets will be
available for court fines or
compensation.	
•	 C
 ivil orders against serious
offenders following
conviction. This could include,
for example, post-conviction
restraints on consumption
of alcohol, curfews, or
restrictions on the use of the
Internet by those convicted of
child sex offences.	
•	 A
 register of violent offenders
so that post-release
supervision and notification
requirements are imposed on
such offenders, akin to those
on sex offenders.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

•	 H
 armonised and extended
detention periods for all violent
and serious crime to avoid
anomalies that now exist.	
•	 S
 tatutory provision to enable
the prosecution to make a
submission on sentence,
which would include
drawing attention to nonincarceration options. 	
•	 G
 reater pre trial case
management such as U.K.
style plea and directions
hearing.	
•	 R
 emoval of anomalies in
laws, rules and procedure
that restrict the due
administration of justice.

Tackling the Drugs Crisis
Drug use is an escalating social
problem and is often characterised
by multiple drug use, alcohol
abuse, violence and gun crime.
Labour supports the principles and
objectives of the National Drugs
Strategy. In government we will
give renewed impetus to the fight
against drugs and we will ensure
that the Strategy once again
becomes relevant and effective.
This will include expanding
rehabilitation services at local level
in line with need and subject to
available resources; integrating
drug and alcohol abuse strategies
at local level; strengthening the
supply reduction effort and criminal
assets seizures, particularly at
local level; expanding the drugs
court; developing compulsory as
well as voluntary rehabilitation
programmes; and reducing the flow
of drugs to our prisons.

Making community
policing a priority
Labour wants to build a modern and
effective Garda force, where Gardaí
work in communities they know,

Labour will require the Gardaí
to give greater priority to
community policing
serving people they know.
Labour will require the Gardaí to give
greater priority to community policing
that will see more Gardaí on patrol
in the communities worst affected
by anti-social beahaviour. This will be
complemented by Labour’s strategy to
deal with anti-social behaviour in local
authority-funded accommodation, as
detailed in our housing policy.
Labour will build on the existing
community policing partnerships
and forums to enhance trust
between local communities and
their Gardaí. The community Garda
service should also be supported
by members of the Garda Reserve
drawn from the community.
By building a relationship with
the communities they serve,
community Gardaí can better
tackle the plague of low level crime
and anti-social behaviour that is
so destructive of community life.
Labour’s commitment is to ensure
that, within available resources,
there are more Gardaí on patrol in
local neighbourhoods, and to make
policing more responsive to those
communities’ needs.

Making the punishment
fit the crime
Labour is committed to ensuring
that the punishment fits the
crime, and protects and serves the
community if at all possible. A key
foundation of this approach will
be to introduce a Sentencing Bill
which will set out aggravating and
mitigating circumstances to be
taken into account by the Courts,
and bring greater consistency.

57

Information on sentencing practice
will be collected and made available
on a systematic and timely basis.

A more effective
prisons policy
No one could describe Ireland’s
present penal system as effective,
and least of all cost-effective.
Ireland’s prisons are overcrowded,
and our prison system is among
the most expensive in the world.
As well as the human cost, it is
clear that we cannot afford to
commit ourselves to spending everincreasing amounts of public money
on a system that has little or no
impact on re-offending rates.
The Labour Party will bring in
major reforms to ensure that the
criminal justice system provides for
a safer society at a lower cost to the
taxpayer, by switching away from
costly prison-based sentences and
towards less costly non-custodial
options and greater use of open
prisons for appropriate prisoners.
Labour’s proposals to reform penal
policy include:
•	 R
 educing the number of
prisoners in our jails when
alternative sanctions would
serve the same corrective
purpose by specifying in law
a core rule that imprisonment
is a penalty of last resort for
non-violent offenders.	
•	 R
 eforming sentencing
practice at District Court
level to reduce the number of
very short prison sentences
handed down for minor, nonviolent crimes.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

•	 P
 rogressively implementing
the Children Act 2001 and
the National Youth Justice
Strategy to tackle youth crime,
and continuing to resource
policies which divert young
people from criminality,
and provide for alternative
sanctions.	
•	 R
 olling out the Drugs Court
initiative.	
•	 M
 aking much more effective
use of alternative sanctions,
such as the Community
Service Order scheme.	
•	 A
 ddressing the issue of major
overcrowding in Ireland’s
prisons.

Judicial reform
Labour will legislate to establish
a Judicial Council, with lay
representation, that will provide an
effective mechanism for dealing
with complaints against judges.

Labour will enact
comprehensive and transparent
legislation on immigration
within 12 months
independent appeals mechanism for
the review of immigration-related
decisions will also be introduced.
The Labour Party will promote policies
which integrate minority ethnic
groups in Ireland, and which promote
social inclusion, equality, diversity, and
the participation of immigrants in the
economic, social, political and cultural
life of their communities.

A fair immigration system
A comprehensive statute to
regulate immigration and set out
the rights and duties of migrants
in Ireland is overdue by almost ten
years. Failure to legislate for a fair,
transparent immigration process has
resulted in an ad hoc system that
can be confusing, inconsistent and
anomalous. Processing of applications
and decision-making is subject to
long delays, while the absence of
legislation means there is frequent
resort to the Courts for judicial review.
Every country has the right to
determine who may and who
may not come to live within its
jurisdiction. Labour in government
will enact comprehensive
and transparent legislation
on immigration within 12
months, setting out the rights
and obligations involved. The
administrative process will be
streamlined and speeded up and, an

58

Fairness

59

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness

Fairness In Education
Time for change

Labour’s ambition is to build not just a knowledge
economy, but a knowledge society. Education is
at the heart of a more cohesive, more equal and
more successful society, and it will be the engine of
sustainable economic growth. Labour is committed
to protecting children’s education, because we believe
they deserve the best start their country can give them.
Even in this crisis, we can make
progress. Labour will put improving
educational outcomes, from literacy
to third level, at the heart of our
education reforms.

14

The first steps
•	 I mprove child literacy standards for the first
time in a generation	
•	 R
 eform how schools are managed to focus on
improving educational outcomes	
•	 T
 ransform the second level curriculum to
equip young people with skills for the 21st
century	
•	 P
 rioritise school building and refurbishment in
Labour’s revised National Development Plan	
•	 P
 ut high standards of teaching and learning at
the heart of third level reform

60

Labour will build on existing
Vocational Educational Committees,
and progressively transform them
into Local Education Boards.
Local Education Boards will absorb
the existing educational functions of
Vocational Educational Committees,
including the patronage of their
existing schools at primary and
secondary level, and in adult
education. Their membership will
continue to be elected in a manner
similar to the present VECs.
New functions for Local Education
Boards will include coordinating
support services for schools to get
better value for money, for example
clustered secretarial services, coordination of supply teachers and
tendering for electricity and heating.
The boards will be responsible for
repairs and maintenance, and will
also act as project manager for all
major school building projects and
refurbishments within their areas.

Labour will give principals more
freedom and responsibility to
raise the educational standards
in their schools
Better school leadership
Good schools require one thing in
common: good school leadership.
Labour will reform school leadership
to give principals the skills, support
and freedom they need for this
increasingly complex job. Principals
will be given substantial autonomy
to manage their school’s resources,
including staff, and to enable all
schools to reach their potential.

61

Many administrative duties, relating
to maintenance, school building
projects and human resources,
currently carried out by principals
could be handed over to Local
Education Boards. On top of this,
Labour will implement a number
of reforms to give principals more
freedom and responsibility to raise
the educational standards in their
schools.
Principals will, with the support of
the Inspectorate, draw up five year
development plans for their schools
and individual teachers. They will
be enabled to allocate and manage
staff with required flexibility, with
management responsibilities
delegated to teachers as school
priorities require.
All new principal appointments
will be for ten years only, and
new principals will be required
to complete a Master’s degree in
educational management within an
agreed timeframe.

Make Primary School
Patronage fit for purpose
in the 21st Century
Labour wants to reform our education
system so that it is more democratic,
and recognises the diversity of ethos
within modern Irish society.
Labour will initiate a time-limited
Forum on Patronage and Pluralism
in the Primary Sector. This national
Forum would be open to participation
from all the stakeholders in the
education sector. The Forum will have
concise terms of reference and sit for
a maximum of 12 months.
The recommendations of the
Forum will be drawn up into a
White Paper for consideration and
implementation by the Government
to ensure that our education system
can provide a sufficiently diverse
number of schools which cater for
all religions and none. As part of
this process, parents and the local

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Local Education Boards
for local education needs

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

community should also have a say in
the patronage of existing and future
schools, for example by direct ballot.
Labour in government will ensure
Educate Together is recognised
as a patron at second level by the
Department of Education and Skills.

Learning for the 21st
century and improving
outcomes
Irish second level pupils are learning
a 20th century curriculum based on
rote learning, while competing in
a 21st century labour market that
rewards problem solving, flexibility,
innovation and creativity.
Labour in government will
progressively implement the reform
of the Junior and Senior cycle, as
envisioned by the National Council
for Curriculum and Assessment.
In particular, Labour will prioritise
the reform of maths and science
teaching at second level, including
making science a compulsory Junior
Cert subject by 2014.
The costs of expanding the
curriculum and offering a wide range
of subjects to pupils will be reduced
by enabling schools to ‘share’
teachers via live web casts and other
technological innovations.
Labour will progressively upgrade
the information communications
technology (ICT) infrastructure
of schools over the course of new
school building and refurbishment.
Future investment in ICT will
encompass mandatory professional
development for teachers to
incorporate new technologies into
their teaching practice. Labour will
also maximise investment through
pooling of ICT procurement.

Making Literacy a
national cause
Literacy is the foundation stone on
which all learning is built. Labour

Labour will make literacy
a national cause
in government will make literacy a
national cause, with a medium-term
goal of ensuring that no child leaves
an Irish school unable to read and
write.
Labour’s approach is three-fold:
putting literacy policy at the heart
of our agenda in government;
embedding literacy in our
communities; and focusing on the
teaching of literacy in our classrooms.
Labour will develop a national
literacy strategy, with school-level
targets. Every school will be required
to have a literacy action plan, with
demonstrable outcomes.
DEIS primary schools will be
mandated to teach literacy for 120
minutes per day; non-DEIS schools
will be mandated to teach literacy
for 90 minutes per day. This time
includes incorporating structured
literacy tuition into the teaching of
other subjects.
Teachers are our most important
resource in tackling poor literacy.
Labour will improve pre-service and
in-service training in the teaching of
literacy for all primary and secondary
school teachers, and provide
dedicated literacy mentors to work
intensively with teachers in the most
disadvantaged primary schools.
Labour will also work with local
authorities to develop Labour’s
Right to Read campaign and to
develop community supports for
literacy, such as more spacious social
housing, longer opening hours
for libraries, homework clubs and
summer camps that improve literacy
through sport and games.
Labour’s literacy strategy will involve
refocusing some existing spending

62

on literacy goals, and will cost an
additional €14 million per annum.

Improving equity in
education
As part of the Comprehensive
Spending Review, Labour will
examine how we can make existing
expenditure on educational
disadvantage more effective.
Labour will also look at innovative
ways in which teenagers at risk of
leaving the school system can stay
connected, for example through the
use of ICT-based distance learning
and projects such as iScoil.
Labour is committed to reversing the
cut to the number of psychologists
in the National Educational
Psychological Service in Budget
2011 at a cost of z3 million. Labour
will support schools, parents and
children with special educational
needs by ensuring that necessary
supports follow a child from primary
to second level, and achieving
greater integration of special needsrelated services.

Prioritise the School
Building Programme
Labour will prioritise school
building projects in our revised
national development plan. In cases
where schools spend hundreds of
thousands of euro renting prefabs,
Labour will enable schools to build
permanent school accommodation
instead.
School planning, building and
maintenance will be managed and
delivered much more efficiently
and cost-effectively by new Local
Educational Boards.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

In future, local authorities will be
required to complete an Educational
Impact Assessment on residential
zoning, to identify potential need
for schools. The creation of Shared
Educational Campuses will be a core
principle for future development
of our educational infrastructure.
Schools of different ethos and
patronage could be located on a
shared campus and utilise common
educational facilities, secretarial
supports, playing fields and sports
facilities.
New schools will be built to grow
with their communities, and to
provide for a more interactive, childfriendly model of education. Labour
will develop existing standardised
designs for new schools, which will
be the blueprint for future greenfield
developments.
Labour in government will negotiate
the transfer of school infrastructure
currently owned by the 18 religious
orders cited in the Ryan Report, at no
extra cost, to the State. The existing
patronage and activities of these
schools will remain unchanged. We
will also ensure that school buildings
and land are zoned for educational
use, so that they cannot easily be
sold and lost to the system.

Reforming third level
education
Labour abolished third-level fees in
1995, and we are opposed to their
re-introduction. We refuse to go back
to the days when only the relatively
wealthy could count on going to
third level, or when a family could
only afford to send one of their
children to college.
However, Labour will expect radical
reform in third level institutions to
maximise their existing funding, in
particular the reform of academic
contracts.

In government, Labour will review
the recommendations of the Hunt
report on higher education. Labour
supports a vibrant, pluralist third
level sector that offers both high
quality research and high quality
undergraduate teaching. Reform
of third level should be driven by
the need to improve the learning
outcomes of undergraduate degree
students, as well as provide high
quality research, and it is this
principle which will inform Labour’s
policy on the future of the third
level system. Labour will initiate
a time-limited audit of level 8
qualifications on offer in Irish third
level institutions and the learning
outcomes for graduates of these
courses.
In order to ensure that students’
interests are protected in the
delivery of third level education,
Labour will extend the remit of
the Ombudsman to third level
institutions.
To reduce the bureaucracy associated
with student support, Labour
will transfer responsibility for the
administration of student grants to
the Department of Social Protection.
We will also reform the means test
for the student grant to ensure that
it is equitable and targeted at those
most in need of assistance.
Labour is committed to the
relocation of the Dublin Institute of
Technology to the new campus in
Grangegorman.

Develop Ireland’s Third
Level sector as a Centre
for International
Excellence

Labour will devise a National
Strategy for International Education
which will seek to attract students
from a select number of countries
to study in Ireland, in line with the
employment, academic and skill
requirements of our overall economy
and education sector.

63

The strategy will develop an
‘Education Ireland’ brand, and
combine the ambitions and interests
of government policy with those of
the higher education sector for a five
year period. The policy will target
in particular students from India,
China and the Middle East, with
advertising, visa policies and quality
assurance managed accordingly. This
will form part of wider relationshipbuilding with BRIC countries through
developing educational links.
Postgraduate students should
be allowed work in Ireland for
up to a year after they complete
their studies. High-value research
students should be allowed bring
their families to Ireland if they are
staying for more than two years.
Labour will prioritise the
development of a one-stop
shop website which can enable
international students to learn about
Ireland, pick a course and apply for
their visa.

Lifelong learning
Labour will transfer responsibility
for vocational education and
training, including an expanded
apprenticeship programme, from
FÁS to further education colleges
and the Institutes of Technology. To
qualify for this transfer of funding
from FÁS, further education colleges
and Institutes of Technology will
be mandated to develop flexible,
high-quality vocational training
opportunities for jobseekers, in line
with the recommendations of the
Expert Group on Future Skills Needs.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness
Labour’s Plan for
Fair Health Care
Time for change

Ireland’s healthcare system is broken, and for thirteen years,
Fianna Fáil has chosen not to fix it. Instead, they focused on
privatising the health service, giving huge tax-payer funded
windfalls to developers building super-private clinics. Labour
in government will introduce Universal Health Insurance as a
way of delivering better, more effective care for every patient,
and reducing the cost of our health system. From our first
day in office, Labour will begin the phased introduction of a
Universal Health Insurance system, starting with GP care.

15

The first steps
•	 A
 ccess to GPs covered by primary care
insurance for all by 2014	
•	 U
 niversal Hospital Care Insurance that
guarantees every citizen equal access to
hospital care when they need it, phased in
over six years	
•	 P
 rivate hospitals opened to uninsured
patients for diagnostic procedures from year
one, reducing waiting lists	
•	 H
 ospitals funded according to the number
of patients they treat, so that it pays to treat
people efficiently	
•	 A
 focus on treating mental health in the
community, with particular provision for
young people

64

Meeting more people’s healthcare
needs through the primary care
system is key to reducing the overall
cost of the Irish health system. This
requires more services to be delivered
at local level, instead of in hospitals,
and more people being able to afford
them.
Under Labour’s plan, GP fees will be
covered by universal primary care
insurance. This universal primary
care insurance will be extended to
the portion of the population who
do not have a medical card on a
phased basis, so that by 2014, every
person registered with a GP will be
insured for primary care. This means
patients will no longer pay upfront
fees when they visit their GP. Labour
will begin this process in our first year
in government, by extending primary
care insurance for GP visits to people
on the Long-term Illness Scheme.
This reform will be paid for out of
existing Exchequer funding, and
savings in the health budget, which
will go into a Primary Care Insurance
Fund. From this fund, GPs will be paid
a capitation fee per person registered
with their practice, similar to the
existing medical card system, but at a
lower cost to the Exchequer.

By 2014, every person
registered with a GP will be
insured for primary care

Building up supply
In the short term, the supply of GPs
can be increased by deferring the
retirement of existing GPs; by recruiting
more practice nurses, who could take
on up to half the average workload of
a GP; and by recruiting doctors from
abroad, including Irish doctors who
have emigrated. These measures will

65

ensure that there is enough supply to
meet demand in phase one of Labour’s
healthcare reforms.
In the medium to longer term, the
number of GPs being trained in
Ireland will need to increase.
Care in the community
In order to free up more acute
hospital beds, more step-down beds
and home care packages need to
be available to people who cannot
be discharged without some posthospital care. To facilitate this,
Labour will invest additional funds in
community and ‘step down’ care.

Phase Two: Universal
Hospital Care Insurance
Hospital care reform
Labour will introduce a system of
mandatory Universal Hospital Care
Insurance. Hospital care will be
paid for in much the same way we
pay for it now – through Exchequer
resources and insurance premiums –
except that money will be paid into
a Hospital Insurance Fund, which
will regulate the flow of funds to
hospitals and insurance companies.
Premiums will be subsidised
according to income, ranging from
a 100 per cent subsidy for people
currently eligible for medical cards, to
no subsidy for those who can afford
to pay for their own premium. Public,
not-for-profit, and private insurers
will be obliged to offer a guaranteed
‘basket’ of insured hospital services.
The cost of insurance premiums
under a Universal Hospital Care
Insurance system should not change
from what they are at present.
Implementation of these reforms
will result in the cost of delivering
healthcare being reduced, which
means that more people can be
treated for a similar level of funding.
The National Treatment Purchase
Fund (NTPF) and the purchasing arm
of the HSE will come together to

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Extending access to
primary care

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

provide a new non-profit insurer,
which will automatically enrol
people with a medical card and
the uninsured. However, like all
insurance customers, they will have
the choice of whether to switch
insurer.
Initially, half of acute hospital
budgets will be paid via the Hospital
Insurance Fund, which will manage
risk equalisation between insurers,
and fund A&E services, ambulance
services, teaching and certain very
expensive and rare procedures, such
as transplants. The balance of acute
hospital budgets will be paid via
insurance payments based on the
number of procedures they carry out.
Instead of every patient being a
‘drain’ on a fixed hospital budget,
every patient will represent a ‘gain’,
giving hospitals an incentive to treat
as many patients as efficiently as
possible. This is the ‘money follows
the patient’ model of hospital
funding that is driven by universal
health insurance.
Reform in the management of
hospitals, establishment of the new
public insurer for acute hospital
care, and development of systems
of regulation and financing will take
time, which is why introducing this
system will take six years. However,
a phased introduction of universal
hospital insurance will start from
year one with an expansion of the
role of the NTPF to purchase certain
diagnostic tests for people who do
not have insurance.
Costs will be controlled through
centralised negotiation of the price
of drugs and professional fees
by the Hospital Insurance Fund,
in consultation with insurance
companies. This centralised
negotiation of key costs, in
tandem with competing insurers,
is similar to the German model of
health insurance, and is critical to
controlling the cost of delivering
healthcare.

The role of hospitals
Under Universal Hospital Care
Insurance, public hospitals will be
given much more independence.
They will no longer be managed
by the HSE. They will operate
as independent, not-for-profit
foundations or trusts, with managers
accountable to their boards. Boards
will include representatives of local
communities. For some smaller
hospitals it will make sense for
them to combine in a local hospital
network, with a shared management
and board. Hospitals and hospital
groups will be able to compete
to supply care to private or public
insurers.
This freeing of public hospitals
will not be a free market in care.
A free market is not compatible
with social solidarity and good
planning for community health
care needs. An unregulated market
would jeopardise the survival of
smaller hospitals in areas where the
population is dispersed, and would
run counter to the development
of centres of excellence for certain
kinds of care.
Under Universal Hospital Care
Insurance, the Minister for Health
answering to the Government and
Dáil Eireann will be responsible for
health policy, including hospitals
policy.
Where a hospital plays an important
role in supplying care in an area that
cannot be fulfilled by primary care
services, it will not be allowed to
close. If, under the system of Universal
Hospital Care Insurance, that hospital

is failing due to inefficiency, its
management will be replaced. If it
is failing because it needs to offer a
differing package of care, it will be
assisted by the Hospital Insurance
Fund in achieving that change.
In the present fiscal crisis, Labour in
government will prioritise capital
spending in health. Even with
significant reforms in how we pay for
healthcare, Ireland’s system needs
more acute hospital beds and more
step-down beds in the community.
Labour will prioritise investment in
new, modern hospitals, including
the National Children’s Hospital,
a new hospital for the North-East,
and supports the policy objective
of relocating maternity hospitals to
acute hospital campuses in Limerick
and Dublin. Labour in government
will also explore the scope for
providing health care facilities
through non-traditional financing
via the Strategic Investment Bank.

Restoring accountability
for the quality of
Ireland’s health service
The Minister for Health will be
clearly in charge of the health care
system and answerable to the
Government and Dáil Eireann. The
Minister will introduce legislation
to enact Universal Primary Care
Insurance and Universal Hospital
Care Insurance.
Labour ‘s plan does not abolish
the HSE outright. Instead, Labour’s
plan transforms what we have
already, so that the functions of the
HSE are split between purchasing

Labour in government
will prioritise capital
spending in health
66

www.labour.ie/manifesto

hospital care on the one hand, and a
continuation of its management of
mental health, community care and
social care on the other.

Mental Health
Labour’s proposals to reform
healthcare and introduce universal
health insurance will incorporate
mental health care, both through
a strengthened role for GPs, and
through the ongoing development
of Community Mental Health Teams
and Child and Adolescent Mental
Health Teams, as resources allow.
Given the central role of primary
care in our reforms, we will take
action to ensure that GPs and other
professionals at primary level have
the skills and up-to-date knowledge
to identify and treat mental health
problems, or to refer patients on to
the most appropriate care provider.
Labour will work with health
providers and charitable
organisations to explore how a
nationwide early intervention
‘walk-in’ service for young people
experiencing mental health
difficulties, based on the ‘Jigsaw’
service operating in Galway, might
be developed from within existing
resources. Labour will also endeavour
to end the practice of placing
children and adolescents in adult
psychiatric wards.
Labour will comprehensively review
the Mental Health Act (2001) in
consultation with service-users,
carers and other stakeholders,
informed by human rights standards,
and introduce a Mental Capacity Bill
that accords with Article 12 of the
Convention on the Rights of People
with Disabilities.
To ensure a joined-up approach to
mental health in the community, we
will establish cross-departmental
group to ensure that good mental
health is a policy goal across the range
of people’s life experience including
housing, education and employment.

Labour’s key reforms of
primary care will enable
more comprehensive
preventative care
Labour will address the high rate
of suicide, including a review of the
current practice whereby caring
family members are frequently given
little or no information to assist
them in the on-going care of lovedones who have been discharged
from hospital following a suicide
attempt, a psychotic episode or other
serious mental illness.

Preventative care and
care of chronic illnesses
Labour’s key reforms of primary care
will enable more comprehensive
preventative care, and the
management of chronic conditions
in a community setting. We will
develop strategies to address
common and chronic illnesses
including heart and stroke, diabetes,
respiratory illnesses, rare diseases
and Alzheimer’s Disease.
In light of their particular needs,
Labour will commit to enter
into discussions with survivors
of Thalidomide to ensure that
they receive fair and equitable
compensation and a statutory right
to the health care they need for the
rest of their lives.
Labour will also maintain progress
on the cancer strategy, and progress
the recommendations of the
Task Force on Obesity. Labour will
consider the introduction of ‘trafficlight’ labelling of food and drink
products and, in consultation with
stakeholders, a requirement to
clearly display the calorie content of
food in restaurants and cafés.

67

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness

Making Homes Matter
Time for change

Fianna Fáil’s policy of putting the interests of big developers
and the banks ahead of people looking to purchase a
modest home was a direct cause of Ireland’s disastrous
property boom and bust. The Labour Party will reform
housing policy in Ireland, so that the housing market is
never again treated like a private casino. We are committed
to undoing the damage caused by Fianna Fáil’s recklessness,
beginning with helping homeowners in distress to weather
this recession. Labour’s vision for housing policy puts people,
and liveable communities, first.

16

The first steps
•	 A
 two year moratorium on house
repossessions	
•	 D
 evelop MABS into a personal debt
management agency	
•	 P
 rovide distressed mortgage-holders
protection from their creditors	
•	 D
 evelop a coherent plan to deal with ghost
estates	
•	 I ntroduce a ‘housing first’ policy when it
comes to accommodating homeless people

68

Labour believes that the best way
to deal with distressed mortgages
is to make keeping people in their
homes the absolute priority. No
repossessions should be permitted
for at least two years, where a person
makes a genuine attempt to pay their
mortgage on a home of modest size.
We will provide stronger support
for people in difficulties with their
mortgage, by converting the Money
Advice and Budgeting Service into
a strengthened Personal Debt
Management Agency with strong
legal powers.  The agency will
support families who make an
honest effort to deal with their
debts, including non-mortgage
debt,  providing protection from
their creditors where appropriate, so
that they have time to sort out their
affairs.
In order to do so, the Personal Debt
Management Agency will have quasijudicial status. Labour will also reform
Ireland’s penal bankruptcy laws for
those who have to take that route.

The best way to deal with
distressed mortgages is to
make keeping people in their
homes the absolute priority
Labour will make greater use of
Mortgage Interest Supplement to
support families who cannot meet
their mortgage payments, which is
a better and cheaper option than
paying rent supplement after a
family loses their home.

69

In the longer term, Labour will
establish a new Sustainable Homeownership Insurance Programme,
which will be aimed at new
residential mortgage holders and
existing home owners who switch
mortgage providers.

Normalising the market
for homes
For the Labour Party a ‘normal’ home
market is one in which mortgage
lending practices are prudent, house
price inflation does not sky-rocket,
and where the vast majority of
people can afford a family home.
In government, Labour will ensure
that the Central Bank and Financial
Regulator supervise credit institutions’
mortgage lending practices
comprehensively and intensively.
Where credit institutions fail to
adequately control mortgage lending
risks, the Central Bank will impose
loan-to-value ceilings on mortgages,
caps on loan-to-income multiples,
limits on the term of new mortgages,
and more rigorous procedures for
verifying borrowers’ incomes.
A well-functioning housing market
requires that both buyers and sellers
have access to reliable information on
price trends in their neighbourhood,
and for different dwelling types.
Labour will improve the quality of
information available on the Irish
housing market by requiring that
the selling price of all dwellings
is recorded in a publicly available,
national housing price database.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Helping homeowners
weather this recession

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Dealing with ghost estates
Ghost estates are a bitter reminder
of the planning failures of the past.
They are a headache for residents
of these estates, and for the wider
community. The Minster for the
Environment will bring forward, as
a matter of urgency, a coherent plan
to resolve the problems associated
with ghost estates. This plan will
be developed in cooperation with
NAMA and local authorities, and
will include, where appropriate, the
demolition or completion of part
built dwellings; the acquisition of
properties by social landlords; or
the sale of properties on the open
market where this is possible, and
where it is not, the disposal of
dwellings by innovative means such
as rent to buy and co-operative
home ownership programmes.

Looking to the future:
planning for communities
Labour will reform how we plan
for residential development, to
prioritise liveable communities, and
a healthier, safer environment.
Labour will link planning permission
for residential developments to
the provision of public transport,
healthcare, recreational areas,
shops and facilities. As part of this,
local authorities will be required to
carry out an ‘Educational Impact
Assessment’ for all new zonings for
residential development to ensure
an adequate supply of school places.
To make the planning process more
democratic, Labour will amend the
recent Planning and Development
Act (2010) to allow for detailed
public submissions on zoning, and
to rebalance power towards elected
representatives. Local authorities will
be required to carry out a flood risk
report in the preparation of their City
and County Development Plans, and
will also be legally required to manage
flood risk through sustainable
planning and development.

Labour will reform how
we plan for residential
development, to prioritise
liveable communities, and a
healthier, safer environment
Labour will pass legislation to allow
local authorities take housing
estates ‘in charge’ after three years,
and substantially increase existing
penalties for those who break
planning laws.

High Quality, Accessible
Social Housing
Working within existing resources,
Labour will introduce a staged
purchase scheme to increase the
stock of social housing, while
achieving the best possible value for
public investment. Under the terms
of this scheme, leased dwellings
will revert to the ownership of local
authorities and housing associations
at the end of the leasehold period.
Labour will also enable larger
housing associations and local
authorities to access private sector
funding for social housing by issuing
‘social housing bonds’, secured on
the value of their existing housing
stock when market conditions allow.
We will direct the Housing Finance
Agency to design and oversee the
implementation of this funding
mechanism, drawing on best
practice in the many other countries
where bonds are used to fund social
housing projects.
In government, Labour will extend
the remit of the Private Residential
Tenancies Board to regulate social
tenancies, as well as the private

70

rented sector. This will bring
much needed regulation to social
housing tenancies, which currently
undermine tenants’ rights and force
landlords to engage in expensive
court procedures if they wish to
terminate a tenancy.
In addition, we will amend the
Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act (1992) to require all local
authorities and housing associations
to register with the Department
of the Environment if they wish
to access government subsidies or
other supports for social housing
provision. Social landlords will be
required to make annual returns
to the Department to demonstrate
their compliance with specific
financial, housing management and
governance standards. Landlords
that fail to meet these standards
will not be eligible for any Exchequer
support.
In recent years the standard of social
housing management has improved
significantly but unfortunately antisocial behaviour remains a problem
for many. In government we will
address the issue of anti-social
behaviour by introducing a twelve
month probationary tenancy for
all new tenants in social housing
estates. If tenants or members of
their households engage in antisocial behaviour during this period
the tenancy will be terminated.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Supporting private
Renting Tenants
Labour will establish a tenancy
deposit protection scheme to put an
end to disputes regarding the return
of deposits, and ensure that changes
to rent are linked to local market
averages.
The number of people in receipt
of rent supplement, and its cost,
have more than doubled in the past
decade.
Labour will reduce expenditure
on rent supplement by making
recipients’ contribution to their rent
a proportion of their income rather
than a flat amount as is currently
the case. This reform will incentivise
recipients to negotiate lower rents
with participating landlords.
To further reinforce recipients’
negotiating power the maximum
amounts of rent supplement payable
in different localities will no longer
be made publicly available on the
Health Service Executive website.
Labour will also instruct the HSE to
deduct withholding tax from all rent
supplement payments to promote
tax compliance among landlords.

Labour will establish a
tenancy deposit protection
scheme to put an end to
disputes regarding the
return of deposits
In line with our Comprehensive
Spending Review, Labour will
alleviate the problem of longterm homelessness by introducing
a ‘housing first’ approach to
accommodating homeless people.
Labour will lease-purchase or enable
social landlords to build adequate
numbers of long term dwellings for
homeless people and fund support
staff to enable them to successfully
maintain these tenancies over the
long term. In this way we will be able
to offer homeless people suitable,
long term housing in the first
instance and radically reduce the use
of hostel accommodation and the
associated costs for the Exchequer.

Labour will also reform the Rental
Accommodation Scheme so that
claimants’ pay an increasing
proportion of their rent as their
income increases, and set the
maximum contribution with
reference to the total rent paid to
the landlord.

Homelessness
Despite improvements in policy
making, service development, and
very substantial public investment,
the numbers of homeless people
remained high throughout the
economic boom and have recently
begun to rise as the economy has
declined.

71

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness

One Ireland For Children,
Families & Older People
Time for change

Ireland should be the best place in the world to grow up, and
to grow old. It is a scandal that, despite a decade of prosperity,
vulnerable children have been allowed to die for want of proper
care; and that the privileging of profit in healthcare has put
older people at risk of abuse by unscrupulous businesses. The
Labour Party believes that it is time to put aside the ‘me first’
philosophy of Fianna Fáil, and to work together to build an
Ireland that is a safe place for children, a supportive place for
families, and which recognises the value and the potential of
our senior citizens.

17

The first steps
•	 A
 constitutional amendment on children’s
rights	
•	 A
 radical, area-based approach to tackling
child poverty in Ireland’s most disadvantaged
communities	
•	 N
 ew community-based solutions to building
age-friendly neighbourhoods and towns	
•	 R
 emove the barriers to older people who want
to remain active in the workforce, and use
retirees’ expertise to help new start-ups	
•	 R
 egulation to ensure safe, quality home help
services for older people

72

The delay in proceeding with the
referendum on children’s rights is
unacceptable. Labour will ensure
that a children’s rights referendum is
urgently progressed.
Labour will legislate, as a priority,
to allow for the exchange of ‘soft
information’ on suspected abuse of
children, and to significantly raise
the level of proof which an accused
person must reach when they are
claiming ‘mistake as to age’ in a
prosecution for sexual offences
against a child.
The Ryan and Murphy reports
identified significant inadequacies
in how allegations of child abuse
are dealt with in Ireland. The Ryan
Report Implementation Plan set
out 99 actions and policy objectives
which if delivered will radically
change the child protection service.
Labour in government will expedite
the implementation programme.

Labour will ensure that a
children’s rights referendum is
urgently progressed
Labour will also update the Children
First guidelines to restore the
importance of family support,
prevention and early intervention
as key objectives of child protection;
to clarify the ‘threshold of concern’
requiring a report to be made to the
HSE; and to ensure compliance with
the HIQA Guidance report of 2010,
which deals with crisis intervention
for particularly vulnerable children.
Finally, in government we will
ensure that the promised 270 new
social workers are brought into the
system, and that emergency care
is consistently available outside

73

of standard working hours. The
particular problems faced by
separated children, i.e. children who
are outside their country of origin,
will be taken into account.

Childcare and pre-school
education
The Labour Party was the first party
to propose a free, universal year
of pre-school as a vital first step
in a child’s education. Labour will
build on the 2010 Early Childhood
Education and Care scheme, when
resources permit, to develop a
comprehensive, national pre-school
service that is focussed on early
childhood development.
In the mean time, Labour will focus
on the improvement of quality in the
early childhood education and care
sector through the implementation
of Siolta standards; by ensuring the
sufficient availability of training
options for staff. Labour is also
committed to ensuring that all
children have the opportunity to
avail of a universal pre-school year,
wherever their location, and will
review the age structure of the
scheme to ensure that any rigidities
do not work to the disadvantage of
families.

Breaking the cycle of
child poverty
Child poverty in Ireland has
remained stubbornly high, even
through the boom years. This shows
that simply adding more money
is not enough to break the cycle
of child poverty where it is most
deeply entrenched. Labour will
adopt a radical new area-based
approach to tackling child poverty,
based on the youngballymun
project in Dublin, which involves all
of the existing state services, such
as public health nurses, schools,
childcare professionals, and social
workers coordinating their efforts,
with expert Irish and international
support, to tackle every aspect of

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Protecting children

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

child poverty within Ireland’s most
disadvantaged communities.
Labour will seek philanthropic
partners to co-fund and manage
the rollout of this model to up to
ten of Ireland’s most disadvantaged
communities, at a cost of up to €15
million.

Children’s health and
well-being
Labour will take action to tackle
the public health time bomb that is
childhood obesity. In government,
we will publish a National Nutrition
Policy, and will bring together
government departments, agencies
and educators in a major and
sustained campaign to address
this vital aspect of childhood
health and well-being. This will
address advertising standards, the
nutritional content of food sold in
retail outlets and, most importantly
of all, a strong educational
campaign pitched directly at
children and young people
themselves.
The huge increase in the number
of outlets supplying alcohol was
a serious mistake, while the more
recent restrictions on opening hours
have had little discernible impact
on teen drinking. Labour will take
action to further restrict sales to
under-age persons, notably in offlicence outlets. We will also work
at EU level to develop a Europeanwide agreement to phase out, or
substantially reduce, alcohol-related
sponsorship of sporting events.

Supporting modern
Irish families
Irish family life has changed
enormously over the past two
decades, but changes in employment
and legal rights have not kept pace.

Labour will legislate to
guarantee that the State
respects family life, whether
based on marriage or not
Labour favours moving to a paternity
leave model, where parents can
share paid leave when a new baby
is born, as resources allow. More
immediately, Labour will introduce a
legal right to a career break, subject
to reasonable conditions, which
would allow parents to take time
out of the workplace without risking
future benefits or job security. This
would have the added benefit of
creating mobility in the labour force.
We will also explore the option of
introducing a right to part-time
work, subject also to reasonable
conditions.
Labour will legislate to guarantee
that the State respects family life,
whether based on marriage or not,
by passing our Guardianship of
Children Bill (2010).

Building an age-friendly
society
Ireland needs the experience, the
energy and the patriotism of its
older citizens, just as older people
themselves can benefit from help in
their communities.
Labour will establish ‘Give n Take’,
a community response to the
everyday needs of people in a local
community. In this exchange, people
of all ages volunteer their time,
which is lodged in a ‘time bank’. This
exchange, which would be weighted
in favour of older people, would be a
way of brokering volunteering good
will in a community.

74

This will be a way of connecting
people who want to help out in
their communities, with those
who need that help. It will be a
local organisation, administered
locally through the network of
local development/partnership
companies with assistance from
Volunteering Ireland and new
technologies. It would not require
additional resources.
Labour will also initiate a national
annual competition – ‘A Shining
Community’ – to find the most
age-friendly community in Ireland.
Structured along the lines of the Tidy
Towns competition, communities
would research and develop a
blueprint for how their community
can become a model, age-friendly
community accounting for the
health, recreational, educational,
participatory, built environment,
emotional and security needs of
older people.
Labour in government is committed
to progressing the implementation
of a National Positive Ageing
Strategy.

Making sure the voices of
older people are heard
Labour wants older people to be
heard in their communities. Local
authorities will be required to
establish local Older People councils,
where members of the community
can raise local concerns or issues of
importance. These councils will be
chaired by a representative of the
Local Authority, who will be required

www.labour.ie/manifesto

to report to both local elected
representatives, and the Office for
Older People.

Better care for
older people
Labour’s reform of primary care
services, and universal health
insurance, will particularly benefit
older people, who will be assured of
access to care when they need it.
Labour’s plan to expand the
community care sector, to enable
older people to be discharged
from hospital and cared for in
their communities, is detailed in
our proposals on Universal Health
Insurance.
Labour will review the role and
operations of the public network
of geriatric hospitals and long term
care units as part of a coherent
strategy for residential care for older
people.
Labour will regulate home help
services so that older people and
their families can have confidence in
them.
Labour is committed to introducing a
comprehensive statutory framework
on mental capacity, including
provision for the appointment of an
independent advocate for those who
need someone to advocate on their
behalf.

Helping older people who
want to work
Older people who wish to remain
economically active should be able
to do so. Phased retirement from

full-time work will be facilitated for
those who wish to continue to work
part-time on a contractual basis,
underpinned by legislation and
subject to commonsense exceptions
and conditions.
The experience and skills of older
people should not be lost to the
economy when they retire. Labour
will initiate a campaign, ‘Flyin’
at 60’, to encourage and support
older people finalising one career
to make their wisdom available to
a new enterprise. Retired people
with enterprise development and
mentoring skills can also play
a voluntary role in the services
provided by the Local DevelopmentPartnership or County Enterprise
Boards.
County Enterprise Boards will also
be mandated to develop a specific
support package for ‘start-up’ Social
Entrepreneurs.

Better, safer communities
for older people
Ireland needs to plan now for
homes and communities that
make it easier for older people to
live independently. Part M of the
Building Regulations will be revised
and developments complying with
Universal Design principles will be
favoured in the planning process.
As part of Labour’s broader housing
policy, we will seek to promote
sheltered housing that meets a high
standard of design and specification.
Simple home maintenance can be
one of the biggest challenges for
people as they grow older. Through

Labour will allow for the
development of ‘No Cold
Calling’ Zones
75

the Give n’ Take a Social Exchange
Network, the local development and
partnership companies will hold
a register of skilled craftspeople
willing to volunteer a little of their
time, and who can undertake minor
alterations and repairs.
Labour will allow for the
development of ‘No Cold
Calling’ Zones in areas with high
concentrations of older people. This
will prohibit the practice of cold
calling and selling door to door in
those areas.
An opt-in Older People Community
Register will be established, in
cooperation with Community Gardaí,
the HSE, and locally-managed
social care networks to maximise
a community-wide response in the
event of natural emergencies.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness
A Fairer and More
Equal Ireland
Time for change

Equality is not a luxury for the good times or a buzzword:
it is at the heart of what it means to be a citizen in our
democracy, and it is at the heart of the Labour Party’s view
of the world. Labour believes that everyone has the right to
reach their full potential, free from discrimination, and that
we all benefit from living in a more equal society. Fianna Fáil
presided over a very unequal and divided Ireland. Labour
is committed to forging One Ireland, built on fairness and
equal citizenship.

18

The first steps
•	 B
 ring more women into politics by
tying funding for political parties to the
participation of women representatives	
•	 Reform the law on mental capacity	
•	 Stronger laws against unfair discrimination	
•	 A referendum on same-sex marriage	
•	 L egislation to regulate scientific stem cell
research

76

A fair deal for people
with disabilities

Women continue to be underrepresented – if they are there at
all – in the decision-making arenas
at all levels of politics, and on state
boards. Labour will make it a legal
requirement that 40 per cent of
either gender is represented on state
boards and committees, and we will
ensure that other nominating bodies
are bound by the same target.

Labour remains committed to an
approach to disability in Ireland
based on rights, equality and
participation. We will continue
to work to vindicate the rights of
people with disabilities to education,
health, housing and work and to
participate in an inclusive manner
in the economic, social and cultural
life of the community, and will work
to advance implementation of the
National Disability Strategy.

Public funding for political
parties will be tied to the level of
participation by women as public
representatives those parties
achieve. Demanding targets for 	
all political parties will be set out 	
in legislation.

Labour will make it a legal
requirement that 40 per
cent of either gender is
represented on state boards
and committees
Labour is committed to tackling and
eradicating domestic violence. We
will protect funding for frontline
services, such as family refuges, and
draw on best international practice
to reform the way the courts system
deals with domestic abuse cases.
Most urgently, we will tackle the
delay in hearing domestic abuse
cases in the courts, and provide
national consistency of access to the
courts for urgent applications.
Labour supports updating the
Constitution to reflect the role of
women in 21st century Ireland, which
we will be recommending to our
proposed Constitutional Convention.

77

Labour will protect, as a priority,
those people with disabilities who
are most vulnerable to cuts in public
services. However, it is also essential
that we get the best possible value
for money for the investment we
make in services with people for
disabilities, and that those services
meet the needs of users.
Labour’s proposed Comprehensive
Expenditure Review will examine all
provision for people with disabilities,
with a view to determining how
users can get the best services, for
the public investment made. As part
of this review, Labour will consider
moving a proportion of public
spending on disability services to a
personal budgeting model, so that
people with disabilities or their
families have greater flexibility to
make the choices that suit their
needs best.
Labour is also committed to
reforming the law on mental
capacity, so as to ensure the greatest
degree of autonomy for people with
intellectual disabilities or suffering
from a mental illness, and to reduce
the need for expensive court
proceedings.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Fairness and equality
for women

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

LGBT rights
Labour is committed to holding
a referendum to provide for
constitutional recognition of samesex marriage. Labour also supports
entitling all parties to a marriage or
civil partnership to apply to adopt
a child, while ensuring that all
adoption decisions must be made in
the best long-term interests of the
child. In the immediate term, Labour
will enact provisions to extend the
tax benefits of marriage to same sex
couples in civil partnerships.
Labour is committed to ensuring all
publicly funded colleges operate in
accordance with the constitutional
right to Freedom of Conscience.
Labour will ensure the five teaching
colleges introduce a Freedom of
Conscience clause so that trainee
teachers no longer are obliged
to undergo compulsory religious
education.
Labour will amend Section 37 of the
Employment Equality Acts (1998)
and (2004) to end discrimination
against LGBT teachers and trainee
teachers, and to ensure that there
is no obstacle to schools tackling
homophobic bullying.
Labour will continue to fund Gay HIV
Strategies.
Labour will advance equality for
trans-gender people by enacting
gender recognition legislation, and
by extending to them protections
afforded by existing equality
legislation.

Fair employment rights
Labour in government will address
the fact that some unscrupulous
employers have sought to
undermine the right to collective
bargaining. Labour will introduce
legislation to strengthen the rights
of workers to engage in collective
bargaining, as enshrined in the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights. The
legislation will also make it illegal

Labour will enact provisions
to extend the tax benefits of
marriage to same sex couples
in civil partnerships
to discriminate in any way against
an employee because they are a
member of a trade union or involved
in trade union activity.
Labour will also amend the
Employment Equality Act to combat
age discrimination by shifting the
burden of proof to the employer as
to why an individual must retire on
age grounds.

Fostering a healthy
civil society
A robust civil society is essential to
building a fair Ireland, where power
is shared and dissent and debate are
valued.
Labour supports the aims of the
Conversation on Democracy in
Ireland project.
Labour’s Comprehensive Spending
Review will examine all areas of
government spending, to establish
what is the best and most costeffective way to achieve the positive
outcomes we want for our country.
This review will provide the basis
for a coherent policy framework
governing the State’s partnership
with community and voluntary
organisations.
Labour is committed to
continuing the work of the
Forum on Philanthropy under the
chairmanship of the Department
of the Taoiseach, and to actively
supporting the development of a
strategy to promote philanthropy at
all levels of society

78

Putting equality back
into government
decision-making
Fianna Fáil systematically filleted
state bodies which criticised its
record on equality, human rights
and poverty. The Labour Party will
put fairness and equality back at
the heart of government decisionmaking. A new Equality and Social
Inclusion Authority with a mandate
to promote social inclusion and
equality, and combat poverty
and discrimination, will replace
the Equality Authority and the
National Disability Authority. It will
incorporate the policy and research
functions of the Combat Poverty
Agency, which was dismantled by
Fianna Fáil.
Labour will establish an Oireachtas
Committee on Equality, Women
and Human Rights, charged with
progressing legislation in these
areas.

Bioethics and other
law reforms
Labour will legislate in accordance
with existing constitutional
provisions and court judgements
to clarify the law – including the
law relating to guardianship
responsibilities – surrounding
assisted human reproduction.
Labour will also legislate to regulate
stem cell research, with regard to
the recommendations of the Irish
Council for Bioethics.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Labour will legislate for postmortem procedures and organ
retention practices as recommended
by the Madden report, and change
the Organ Donation system to
an ‘opt out’ system for organ
transplantation rather than an ‘opt
in’ system, so as to improve the
availability of organs for patients in
desperate need.
Labour in government will legislate
in accordance with the Supreme
Court judgment in the X Case, and
the recent ruling by the European
Court of Human Rights.

79

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness
Culture, Sport
and the Arts
Time for change

Labour believes that every citizen should have the
opportunity to enjoy our shared cultural, artistic
and sporting life, and to participate in it.
Excellence in the arts and in sport will
be supported, but the thrust of Labour’s
policy will be to widen access to the
arts, to grow Irish as a spoken language,
and to build participation in sport from
the ground up.

19

The first steps
•	 V
 est overall responsibility for developing the
Irish language in the Office of the Taoiseach	
•	 D
 evelop local sports partnerships nationwide
using funding from an increased betting levy	
•	 P
 rioritise multi-use facilities when investing in
sports infrastructure	
•	 E
 stablish a National Endowment Fund to
leverage private funding for the arts	
•	 F ocus public spending on the arts on making
the best use of our existing arts venues, and
on extending access to the arts

80

The Labour Party recognises that the
Irish language is an important part
of our national and cultural identity.
Its standing as one of the oldest
spoken and literary languages still
in use gives it a wider significance
not only in Ireland but across Europe.
Its importance goes beyond cultural
heritage. Labour believes that the
Irish language can and should
contribute to our economic recovery
through its continued use in tourism,
the arts and in broadcasting.
As a foundation for the Labour
Party’s position on the Irish
language, we support the 20 Year
Strategy for the Irish Language
2010-2030. Labour believes that the
Office of the Taoiseach should be
responsible for coordinating and
driving the strategy, and that the
Taoiseach should be answerable to
the Dáil for its implementation.

Labour supports the longer
term goal of introducing a
second subject at primary level
that is taught through Irish
Revitalising the Irish
language in education
Labour will maintain Irish as one
of the three core compulsory
Leaving Certificate subjects. At the
same time, we recognise that the
teaching of the Irish language needs
significant reform. Irish students
should leave school able to hold a
conversation in Irish with their peers.
Labour will undertake a thorough
reform of the Irish curriculum in
keeping with the aims of the 20 Year
Strategy. Labour wants to create a

81

virtuous circle where teachers and
students are improving their spoken
Irish on an ongoing basis. This can
be done in part by reforming the
curriculum so more emphasis is put
on oral and aural skills. Our teachers
will also need to be supported
in this process. Opportunities
will be provided, within the
existing continuous professional
development budget, to primary and
secondary school teachers to attend
courses in the Gaeltacht during the
summer to maintain and improve
their Irish throughout their careers.
Labour supports the longer term
goal of introducing a second
subject at primary level that is
taught through Irish. Working in
consultation with all stakeholders
we will explore how this can best be
achieved. The goal of normalising
the use of Irish through teaching art,
music or drama is one possible way
of encouraging the use of spoken
Irish.
In government, Labour will
implement its strategy for improving
literacy in schools. This strategy will
include the improvement of Irish
language literacy in gaelscoileanna
and in Gaeltacht schools, with
appropriate adaptations of the
strategy developed in consultation
with educational stakeholders.

Creating living
Gaeltachtaí
The Labour party recognises the
important place the Gaeltachtaí
have in our country. The survival and
enhancement of the Gaeltachtaí
depends on people being able to
make a living in these communities.
Údarás na Gaeltachta, along with
other enterprise agencies, will
be able to draw down additional
funding from Labour’s dedicated
Jobs Fund, if they can demonstrate
that this additional funding will
directly contribute to generating
additional jobs in strategic areas
such as food production, tourism,

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

The Irish language in
the 21st century

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

renewable energy, digital media or
clean technology.

Irish language
broadcasting and
the arts
When last in government, the
Labour Party established TG4. We
will continue to support the Irish
language broadcasting sector. The
Irish language is a key part of our
artistic tradition, and this will also be
supported by Labour in government.

An Ghaeilge
Aithníonn Páirtí an Lucht Oibre gurb
í an Ghaeilge cuid thábhachtach
dár bhféiniúlacht náisiúnta agus
chultúir. Cuirtear suntas níos leithne
ina leith, ní in Éirinn amháin ach ar
fud na hEorpa chomh maith, mar
gheall ar an stádas atá aici mar
cheann de na teangacha labhartha
agus liteartha is sine atá in úsáid
fós. Tá i bhfad níos mó ná oidhreacht
chultúir i gceist leis an tábhacht a
bhaineann léi. Creidimid gur féidir
leis an nGaeilge agus gur chóir di cur
lenár dtéarnamh eacnamaíochta trí
úsáid a bhaint aisti go leanúnach sa
turasóireacht, sna healaíona agus i
gcúrsaí craolacháin.
Leagtar bonn síos i leith staid
Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre maidir leis
an nGaeilge tríd an tacaíocht a
thugaimid don Straitéis 20 Bliain
don Ghaeilge, 2010-2030. Creideann
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre gur chóir d’Oifig
an Taoisigh freagracht a ghlacadh
as an straitéis a chomhordú agus a
chur chun cinn agus gur chóir don
Taoiseach a bheith freagrach don
Dáil maidir lena cur i ngníomh.

An Ghaeilge agus
oideachas
Coinneoidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre
an Ghaeilge mar cheann de na
trí chroí-ábhar éigeantacha don
Ardteistiméireacht. Ag an am
céanna aithnímid go bhfuil gá le
hathchóiriú suntasach a dhéanamh

ar mhúineadh na Gaeilge. Ba chóir
go mbeadh daltaí na hÉireann in ann
comhrá a bheith acu as Gaeilge lena
gcomhpháirtithe agus iad ag fágáil
na scoile.
Tabharfaidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre
faoi athchóiriú críochnúil ar
churaclam na hÉireann a thiocfaidh
le haidhmeanna na Straitéise 20
Bliain. Táimid ag iarraidh fáinne óir a
chruthú ina bhfeabhsóidh múinteoirí
agus daltaí a nGaeilge labhartha
ar bhonn leanúnach. Is féidir é sin
a dhéanamh go páirteach tríd an
gcuraclam a athchóiriú ionas go
leagfar tuilleadh béime ar scileanna
labhartha agus éisteachta. Beidh
tacaíocht ag teastáil ó mhúinteoirí
chomh maith mar chuid den
phróiseas seo. Cuirfear deiseanna
ar fáil, laistigh den bhuiséad
forbartha gairmiúla leanúnaí
reatha, do mhúinteoirí bunscoile
agus meánscoile chun freastal a
dhéanamh ar chúrsaí sa Ghaeltacht
i rith an tsamhraidh ar mhaithe
lena nGaeilge a chothabháil agus a
fheabhsú le linn a ngairme.
Tacaíonn Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis
an sprioc níos fadtéarmaí maidir
le dara hábhar a mhúinfear trí
Ghaeilge a thabhairt isteach ag
an leibhéal bunscoile. Déanfaimid
scrúdú ar conas is fearr is féidir é
sin a bhaint amach agus muid ag
obair i gcomhairle leis na páirtithe
leasmhara go léir. Bealach amháin
a d’fheadfaí spreagadh a thabhairt

d’úsáid na Ghaeilge labhartha
is ea an sprioc a bhaineann le
húsáid a bhaint as an nGaeilge i
ngnáthchúinsí trí ealaín, ceol nó
drámaíocht a mhúineadh.
Cuirfidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre a
straitéis maidir le litearthacht a
fheabhsú i scoileanna i ngníomh
agus iad sa Rialtas. Áireofar
mar chuid den straitéis sin,
litearthacht na Gaeilge a fheabhsú i
ngaelscoileanna agus i scoileanna na
Gaeltachta, agus oiriúnuithe cuí den
straitéis á bhforbairt i gcomhairle le
páirtithe leasmhara oideachais.

Gaeltachtaí Beo a Chruthú
Aithníonn Páirtí an Lucht Oibre
an staid thábhachtach atá ag
na Gaeltachtaí sa tír againne.
Braitheann maireachtáil agus
feabhsú na nGaeltachtaí ar chumas
na ndaoine chun slí bheatha a
dhéanamh sna pobail sin. Beidh
Údarás na Gaeltachta, i dteannta le
gníomhaireachtaí fiontraíochta, in
ann maoiniú breise a íostarraingt
ó Chiste tiomnaithe Fostaíochta
Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre, más féidir leo
a léiriú go gcabhróidh an maoiniú
breise sin go díreach le tuilleadh post
a ghiniúint i réimsí straitéiseacha
cosúil le táirgeadh bia, turasóireacht,
fuinneamh in-athnuaite, na meáin
dhigiteacha nó an teicneolaíocht
ghlan.

Coinneoidh Páirtí an Lucht
Oibre an Ghaeilge mar
cheann de na trí chroíábhar éigeantacha don
Ardteistiméireacht
82

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Craolachán Gaeilge agus
na healaíona
Chuir Páirtí an Lucht Oibre anchuid de na struchtúir agus an
reachtaíocht ar bun a raibh cruthú
TG4 mar thoradh orthu le linn
dóibh a bheith sa Rialtas an uair
dheireanach. Leanfaimid ar aghaidh
ag tacú le hearnáil an chraolacháin
Ghaeilge. Is cuid lárnach dár
dtraidisiún ealaíne í an Ghaeilge
agus tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre
leis sin freisin agus iad sa Rialtas.

A fresh direction for
arts policy
In the interests of value for money,
achieving greater efficiencies and
a more coherent policy, Labour will
make strategic policy formulation
the primary function of the
Department, with its line agencies
and bodies being responsible for
policy implementation.
Labour in government will initiate a
full review of the areas that receive
state funding through the Arts
Council. Funding will be targeted in
areas where it can be most effective
in extending the availability of
arts and cultural activities, while
balancing this against innovation
and endeavour. We will also ensure
that adequate support is extended
to those sectors of the arts that are
particularly popular with younger
people. In the longer term, Labour
favours putting a proportion of Arts
Council funding on a multi-annual
basis, to allow for longer-term arts
planning.
Labour believes that the promotion
of Irish arts abroad is important.
However, this does not need to be
done by a separate agency, with a
separate board. Labour will transfer
the functions of Culture Ireland
to the Arts Council, and give the
Arts Council an expanded mandate
to promote Irish cultural projects
abroad.

Labour will pilot a Local
Arts Partnership to increase
participation in the arts
Labour will also pilot a Local Arts
Partnership, based on the successful
local sports partnerships, in order
to increase participation in the arts.
This will be funded from within the
existing departmental budget.

Getting the most from
our cultural venues
Labour will seek to capture some
public good from NAMA by
identifying buildings that have
no commercial potential, and
which might be suitable as local
facilities for art and culture. We will
also undertake a National Audit
of Arts and Cultural Facilities to
ascertain our current national arts
infrastructure. However, Labour’s
focus of investment in the arts will
be on ensuring our existing venues
are fully utilised.
Labour will also review the opening
times of our national cultural
institutions, such as museums, to
allow for later opening at least once
a week, and make Culture Night a
twice-yearly, nationwide event. This
can be done from within the existing
arts departmental budget.

Supporting artists and
cultural employment
Labour will establish a National
Endowment Fund for the Arts to
leverage private funding to the arts.
We will maintain the Artists Tax
Exemption at €40,000 per year, but
will permit a facility that enables
artists to spread income over a
period of years.

83

There is a wealth of artistic
talent in Ireland that must not be
allowed to go to waste or be lost
to emigration. Labour’s Bridge
the GAP apprenticeship and work
placement scheme can be used to
employ recent fine arts graduates
in schools to facilitate the teaching
of art. The existing apprenticeship
scheme could also be expanded to
include apprenticeship to artistic and
cultural enterprises.

Making sport accessible
to all
Everyone, regardless of gender, age
or background, should have the
opportunity to participate in sport.
Labour’s sports strategy will build
on successful local schemes to
develop programmes, facilities and
activities, to increase participation
for all. Local Sports Partnerships have
the potential to build participation
from the bottom up. Labour will
mainstream successful sports
partnership pilot projects that
have proven their effectiveness in
broadening participation, using
funding from a reconstituted betting
levy.
Labour will also support the work
of Special Olympics Ireland in
building a programme of sport and
development in local communities
for people with special needs.

A coherent approach
to developing sports
facilities
The National Sports Facilities
Strategy will become the blueprint
for the future development of
all sports facilities in the country.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

In future, capital investment in
multi-use sporting facilities will
be prioritised. Overall, Labour
believes that funding of Irish sport
should be reallocated away from
capital projects and moved towards
employment and promotion of sport
on a local and national level.
Any future grants allocated under
the Local Authority Swimming Pool
Programme will be cognizant of the
National Audit of Sports Facilities
and the amount of private facilities
in the area. It will place most
emphasis on the refurbishment of
derelict pools; on ensuring provision
in areas which have experienced
rapid population growth; and areas
that demonstrate a clear need.

Supporting our
elite athletes
We will continue to support our elite
athletes through the International
Carding scheme which we will
review after London 2012. Through
the Department of Tourism, Culture
and Sport we will review the
current structures and strategic
plans of sporting bodies, examining
the implementation of High
Performance Plans and long-term
coaching plans within the bodies.

A more joined-up,
strategic approach to
sport in Ireland
It is in the interests of all
stakeholders that national policy
for sport should be effective and
funding transparent and strategic.
Responsibility for policy-making
will revert to the department, while
agencies will be accountable for
implementing policy, assessing
outcomes and value for money.
Funding for state agencies and
governing bodies will be made
more transparent and structured,
with the Minister holding ultimate
responsibility for funding decisions.
However, all state funding will be

Labour will also encourage,
where feasible, partnerships
between schools and local
clubs to build or develop
shared sports facilities
subject to the beneficiaries signing
up to a dispute resolution services,
such as the Just Sport Ireland
initiative, and the adherence to
new mandatory codes of conduct
regarding child protection in sport.
The Irish Sports Council will be
renamed Sport and Recreation
Ireland, with an expanded remit.
Sport and Recreation Ireland will
partner local authorities, OPW,
Waterways Ireland and Coillte
to identify appropriate outdoor
facilities such as treks, walks and
cycle ways, camping and water
sports. It will also work with the local
authorities to improve recreation
facilities. A number of positions on
the Sports Council’s governing board
will be made directly electable.
Labour will also encourage, where
feasible, partnerships between
schools and local clubs to build or
develop shared sports facilities,
which can be self-financing.

Changing how we
finance the Horse and
Greyhound Fund
The horse and greyhound racing
industries are part of Irish culture,
and important employers.
Labour will maintain the Horse
and Greyhound Fund, though
without direct subvention from
the Exchequer. Instead, Labour
will introduce a betting levy of
1.5%, extended across all media

84

and on-course transactions. Part
of the revenue raised from this
levy will go towards the Horse and
Greyhound Fund. We also favour the
benchmarking of Horse Racing prize
money to a level above that of our
competitor nations in Europe.
How a reconstituted fund will be
raised and administered will be
decided in consultation with all
stakeholders.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairness
Foreign Affairs, the EU
and Northern Ireland
Time for change

Ireland’s international reputation has been damaged by the
disastrous mishandling of our economy by Fianna Fáil, and by
the recklessness of those at the top of the banks. We need to
rebuild our relationships and regain our lost influence within
the European Union, and reach out to forge new relationships
with emerging world powers. Ireland has always wielded
influence greater than our size on the international stage.
The Labour Party is committed to
restoring Ireland’s good name, and to
ensuring that Irish solidarity with the
world’s poorest people is maintained.

The first steps
•	 M
 ake restoring Ireland’s international
reputation a key objective of every
government minister	
•	 M
 aintain Ireland’s overseas development aid
budget, and progress to a target of 0.7 per
cent of GNP dedicated to ODA by 2015	
•	 M
 ake Ireland an international emergency hub
for humanitarian aid and personnel	
•	 W
 ork with our EU partners to reform
international financial regulation, and grow
the European economy	
•	 P
 ublish a white paper setting out a strategy
for the future of our defence forces to 2020

85

20

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Restoring Ireland’s
international reputation
Ireland’s standing within the
European Union and in the wider
world has been compromised by
the disastrous mishandling of our
economy by Fianna Fáil. This loss of
reputation is a real threat to Ireland’s
prospects of recovery.
Labour will make restoring Ireland’s
international reputation as a good,
transparent place to do business,
and as a responsible member of
the international community, a key
policy objective for our diplomatic
corps, and for every minister in
government.
Labour will ensure that Ireland is
fully prepared, with a strategic plan
of action, for both its chairmanship
of the Organisation for Security 	
and Cooperation in Europe in 2012,
and the presidency of the EU Council
in 2013.

Labour is committed
to increasing overseas
development aid to
0.7% of GNP

values and principles underpinning
the aid programme, and will provide
a framework to enhance the
predictability, accountability and
impact of Irish Aid.
Labour will undertake a review of the
implementation of the 2006 White
Paper on Irish Aid, in order to learn
from past successes and mistakes,
and formulate clear objectives for
Ireland’s aid programme to 2020.
Labour will work at EU level to
ensure that EU aid is transparent
and clearly targeted at achieving
the UN Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Within the UN, we
will press for the establishment of
the principle of access to clean water
and sanitation as a human right in
the upcoming review of the MDGs,
and for the establishment of a Rapid
Response Agency for natural and
human disasters which would work
to anticipate, respond and prevent
natural and human disasters.
Labour will also back efforts at UN
level to establish a form of Tobin
Tax at on international financial
transactions to help generate funds
to meet the MDGs.

Making Ireland a hub for
humanitarian aid

A commitment
to development
Labour is opposed to any further cuts
in overseas development aid. Labour
is committed to increasing overseas
development aid to 0.7% of GNP,
which we will seek to achieve by
2015. We will introduce legislation by
2013 to ensure that the ODA budget
is provided for from the Central Fund,
rather than being at the mercy of the
annual estimates process, at which
point we will publish a pathway to
achieving the goal. The legislation
will also give legal expression to the

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One of the major current
weaknesses of the international
response to humanitarian crises
or conflicts is the absence of a
coordinating centre to assemble
resources and personnel. In
government, Labour will position
Ireland to become an international
hub for the storage and distribution
of emergency humanitarian supplies,
and for the assembly of military
and civilian personnel for EU or UN
peacekeeping missions. The Shannon
airport area, with easy access to
ports, extensive space, long runways
and large depots would be an ideal
location for such a hub.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Fairer trade
International trade relations must
be developed on the basis of equity
between developed and developing
countries. We will support efforts to
ensure equity in taxation and trade
regimes and in dealing with the
burden of international debt.
Labour is also committed to
strengthening policy coherence
in relation to development issues
across a range of other government
policy areas, including trade and
climate change.

Reform for a more ethical
foreign policy
The protection of human rights must
be at the heart of any ethical foreign
policy. Through our participation
in international insititutions, we
will work towards the international
recognition of the universality and
indivisibilty of human rights.
Labour strongly supports the United
Nations but recognises the need for
significant reform. The structure, and
procedures, of the Security Council
must be adapted to reflect the global
politics of the 21st century, including
the international standing of the
European Union. Changes in the
UN related multilateral institutions
are needed to favour integrated
approaches to aid, trade and debt.
The importance of UN Conventions
in a wide range of policy areas
must be recognised. Labour will
seek to speed up their ratification
and implementation, for example
of the crucial UN Convention
Against Corruption, which is of
major importance in the field of
development aid and assistance.
Labour in government will pursue a
policy of positive neutrality, and we
are opposed to Ireland participating
in international mutual defence
alliances. In line with our policy
of positive neutrality, Labour will

Labour is committed to
retaining Ireland’s ‘triple lock’
implement measures to restrict
the use of Irish airspace, airports
and related facilities for purposes
not in line with the dictates of
international law, with permission
for military use of such facilities
allowable only for international
missions with explicit UN Security
Council approval.
Labour is committed to retaining
the ‘triple lock’, under which Irish
defence forces can only participate
in missions abroad with government
approval, Dáil approval, and under a
UN mandate.
Labour will give priority to achieving
progress within the UN on the
range of treaties and negotiations
in the field of weapons of mass
destruction, including the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the
efforts to rid the world of landmines,
cluster munitions and biological
weapons.

Security and defence
The Irish Defence Forces have a
proud tradition of participating
in peacekeeping missions abroad,
and are an important pillar of Irish
diplomacy.
Labour will ensure that the Defence
Forces are appropriately equipped
and staffed to meet Ireland’s
obligations to United Nations and EU
peacekeeping missions. In particular,
Labour will ensure that the Medical
Corps is fit for purpose, and able to
attract sufficient personnel, and will
develop an appropriate timescale for
the renewal of the naval fleet.
The Reserve Defence Force is a
valuable resource, which will be
optimised in overseas missions

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with the Defence Forces. Labour
also supports greater coordination
between RDF and Civil Defence
at home. A stronger role for the
RDF will be facilitated by the
appointment of a Brigadier General
to the RDF.
Labour will reform the governance
structures of the Irish Red Cross to
enable it to discharge its duties more
effectively and transparently.
Acknowledging the current
budgetary restraints, Ireland
nevertheless needs to plan ahead to
ensure that our defence forces are fit
for purpose over the coming decade.
Labour will publish a White Paper
on the Defence Forces setting out
our vision for the Defence Forces to
2020. This will include a strategy to
restore the strength of the Defence
Forces to 10,500 members. Such a
paper will also consider what the
appropriate role for PDFORRA might
be within the wider Trade Union
movement. Finally, it should also
map out how Ireland will deal with
future, unorthodox attacks, such as
cyber warfare.

Ireland in Europe
The Labour Party believes that
recovery depends on savings and
growth. While the EU has played
a crucial role, more must be done
to simultaneously reform financial
markets, counteract the recession
and re-launch the economy to create
new growth and jobs. By acting
together in Europe and worldwide,
we can forge a stronger path to
recovery for us all.

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011

Labour’s Manifesto www.labour.ie

Labour’s manifesto 2011
www.labour.ie/manifesto

Jobs and Growth
The number one priority for Labour
in Europe is to safeguard jobs,
create new ones and promote
smart, environmentally sustainable
growth. Europe’s strengths are its
economic diversity and high skill
base. Labour favours a European
competitiveness strategy based on
high skills, effectiveness, gender
equality, productivity and innovation
in a knowledge-driven economy.
Labour will continue to support
reform of financial markets and
banking regulation at a European
level.
Labour is committed to maintaining
Ireland’s 12.5% corporation tax, and
will oppose any move toward a
mandatory Common Consolidated
Corporate Tax Base.
Labour will work at European level to
progress the development of an EUwide smart grid that would enable
Ireland to scale up its renewable
energy production for export.
Labour will also seek to draw down
Ireland’s entitlement to European
Structural Funds and the European
Social Fund to promote employment
in areas such as research,
development and deployment
of renewable energies and for
retrofitting the housing sector.
Labour supports the EU2020
development strategy, and will work
to ensure that it has a stronger
emphasis on employment, and a
genuine integration of the social
dimension into EU strategic thinking.

Building a Social Europe
The European Union is far more than
an economic union: it is a political
union and community of values. In a
Social Europe, the economic, social,
cultural and political rights of all
citizens will be safeguarded. With our
sister parties in every member state
and the Party of European Socialists,

Labour will work at EU level to
ensure the EU takes a lead in
climate change negotiations
Labour will work to make sure these
rights are recognised and respected.
Labour will also seek to establish a
European Employment and Social
Progress Pact guaranteeing a more
equal society and life of dignity
for all citizens, whether employed
or unemployed. This crisis has
underlined the importance of
strong, sustainable social protection
systems. Through the social progress
clause agreed in the Lisbon Treaty,
we will ensure the real social and
environmental cost of EU laws is
fully assessed before they are agreed.

Fulfilling the
Lisbon Pledges
The Lisbon Treaty has strengthened
the role of the EU parliament in the
EU legislative system. Labour Party
MEPs, with their colleagues in the
Group of Socialists and Democrats,
will work for the implementation
of the Lisbon Treaty reforms, for
the greater transparency and
accountability in the work of the EU
institutions and for the prioritisation
of economic stability, job creation
and social development. The Lisbon
Treaty also mandates a much greater
role for national parliaments in the
scrutiny of EU legislation, which
Labour will enforce through the Dáil
committee system.
Ireland has played a constructive role
in the development and operation
of the EU Common Foreign and
Security Policy. Labour is committed
to continuing this engagement, in
the context of our policy of positive
neutrality, and the reaffirmation of
that neutrality by our EU partners in
the Lisbon Treaty.

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With our sister parties across Europe
and the Socialist International,
Labour will work to support gradual
and considered further enlargement
of the Union to bring peace, high
living standards and stable growth
across the continent.

Cooperation on
climate change
Labour supports a meaningful and
equitable international agreement
to avoid runaway global warming,
and will work at European level
to ensure that the EU takes a lead
in these negotiations. Such an
agreement must be implemented
and monitored by a democratic
supervisory authority.
Labour also supports a more coherent
approach to reducing greenhouse
gases across the EU, including the
introduction of binding energy
efficiency targets by 2020, and reform
of the Emissions Trading System.

EU Reform
Labour will demand the highest
standards of transparency and
accountability from EU institutions
such as the Commission and
Parliament; including regulation of
lobbying.
Labour supports the nomination of
candidates for the office of President
of the European Commission in
advance of the 2014 European
elections from the various political
groupings in the European
Parliament. This step will help give
voters real choices in the future
direction of Europe.

www.labour.ie/manifesto

Northern Ireland
Labour is proud of our contribution
to creating a more peaceful, lawful,
and democratic society in Northern
Ireland.
	
We believe that there is considerably
more potential for North/South
cooperation than has been the case to
date, and that this cooperation could
be of mutual benefit to all of the
people north and south of the border.
Through the North/South Ministerial
Council, Labour will seek the
immediate publication of the Phase
One Review of North/South cooperation that was included as part
of the St Andrews Agreement of
2006. Labour will also press for the
earliest possible completion of the
Second Phase, identifying new areas
of co-operation and implementation
between the two parts of the island.

We cannot forget that there are
elements North and South that
wish to destabilise and undermine
the progress that has been made.
In order to confront this threat,
Labour in government will maintain
and encourage the clear, close, and
successful co-operation between
An Garda Síochána and the Police
Service of Northern Ireland to deal
with the threat of all dissident
paramilitary groups.
  

Labour will commence additional
work by the two administrations in
identifying potential areas whereby
savings and efficiencies could be
achieved, services improved and
developed, and jobs created through
greater North-South co-operation.

Labour in government will
maintain and encourage the
clear, close, and successful
co-operation between An
Garda Síochána and the Police
Service of Northern Ireland

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Manifesto

2011

