Transforming Ireland Senator
Fidelma Healy Eames Committed to Creating a Brighter Future for Ireland A Message from Fidelma Healy Eames Many people have suffered huge losses due to failed politics - lost their jobs, lost their savings, lost their homes. We must now make our country secure again. To do that, we need to transform the way we do things in Ireland. This time of crisis is an opportunity to put things right. We must ensure a better and fairer Ireland emerges from this crisis. Right now we must use every policy tool available to fight rising unemployment. We must also lay the basis of a New Deal for the citizen. This leaflet sets out the elements of our plan. Do I believe Fine Gael will make a difference in Govt? My answer is YES This leaflet sets out key elements of our plan.
Fidelma the campaigner. With Enda Kenny TD in Claregalway.
Getting Ireland back to work Young people have been the main victims of the economic crisis. Four out of every five people pushed out of work are under the age of 30. We are losing our youth. Fine Gael refuses to accept this. We have developed a jobs strategy to keep young people at home. It casts aside failed policies of the past and looks to the
Simon Coveney TD with Fidelma announcing Green Energy Job Creation Oranmore event
Founding members of Job Creation Initiative Oranmore, Gerardine Costello and Fidelma expand the jobs initiative to Job Creation Initiative Galway. Announcing the new development is Richard Bruton TD at Galway Chamber of Commerce.
Getting Ireland back to work New Era: New Jobs While Government, banks and developers drove a phoney property boom, the vital arteries of our economy were neglected- high performance broadband, a smart power grid, renewable energy, reliable water. Fine Gael has launched a plan to clear those arteries and bring them commercially to world class standards. The plan is innovative: ● A New Economic Recovery Authority will control these assets and raise €11,000m to invest independent of Government ● Almost 50 bodies will be consolidated down to 5 efficient operating companies ● Old assets no longer essential will be sold so we can create future success
The potential benefits are immense: ● Capture the savings people are putting aside to build a secure future ● Provide 105,000 jobs in the construction phase ● Secure the water supply and end the leakage of €500m of processed water into the ground each year ● Cut oil and gas use by €6,000m through exploiting renewable resources ● Underpin modern business businesses that will be the cornerstone of the recovery, yielding 50,000 long term jobs
Youth Jobs Initiative Almost one in three young people with good qualifications and skills are unemployed. We must not lose them. Fine Gael has developed with a Youth Jobs Plan. n Work Experience: n Second Chance Education: n Job Placement: Support Place 13,000 on Internships Offer 10,000 young people employers willing to and 6,000 on Apprentice with no qualifications or retain workers on shortplacements and Employment only construction skills time or who create new Schemes with supported the opportunity to go posts through a range of access to further education back to Education with a initiatives (40,000) weekly allowance and a qualification bonus Higher Education, critical to the nation and the future of our young people. See FG plan for the funding of 3rd level education. http://www.finegael.org/upload/file/3rdway.pdf
A New Approach to Banks We are almost 2 years into the banking crisis, and what has been achieved? ● No credit is flowing ● No one has been made accountable ● €40 billions of taxpayers money has been poured down the
drain (into Anglo and INBS)
Businesses that could provide jobs are withering and dying for want of credit. By contrast, in America, 42 bankers are in jail, the taxpayer has been paid back, and credit is flowing.
NAMA is using scarce taxpayer’s money to nurse along the crippled loans of the past, instead of devoting resources to people who can build success in the future.
Fine Gael has a very different vision for handling the banking crisis:● Introduce a new banking model to get credit moving. Adapt
successful initiatives from other countries to help our viable businesses protect jobs and survive the crisis ● Take a tougher line with the banks insisting that their investors bear a share of the losses.
Reinvent the Economy Ireland has lost its competitive edge. Sustainable jobs in export markets were sacrificed as the bubble was pumped up. The solution cannot be just about cutting wages as the government seem to think. If workers take a cut, they must see that:
n Shops that engage in rip-off are being confronted n Directors in boardrooms are taking a cut
n Rents and professional fees also fall n The state is cutting the charges it makes
Fine Gael believes there is need for a broad Competitiveness Pact where fair adjustments are made across the board, and Ireland’s ability to trade overseas is rebuilt. Many businesses are hanging on by their fingernails. It falls to Government to clear away obstacles that are choking new business in areas of established strength and in areas of new opportunity.
IRELAND NEEDS A NEW DEAL Many people were left behind by the Celtic Tiger and now they are paying for a disaster created by others. The sacrifices must not be to restore those whose greed and extravagance destroyed us. A new vision must be about treating every citizen fairly and making the powerful accountable. We must forge a New Deal between the state and the citizen to ensure that a better and a fairer Ireland emerges from this crisis. Fine Gael proposes a New Deal for Ireland:
Fair Care: Equal health treatment the Dutch model
Fair Protection: A Chance to pick up the pieces
A New Deal New politics: The Powerful made accountable
Smart State: High Performance and Happier Clients
Fair Care: Universal Health Insurance Fine Gael will fundamentally reorganise the entire Irish health system based on three fundamental principles:
This new model is based on the Dutch health system which ranked number 1 in Europe for Quality and number 2 for Value for Money. By contrast, Ireland was ranked number 15 for Quality and number 24 for Value for Money. It will strip away the big bureaucratic bulge created by the HSE. It will take five years to deliver. Fine Gael will start by setting performance targets for hospitals, hunting down waste, and linking a hospital’s budget to the number of patients it treats and the targets it meets.
n Treat all patients equally: ending the distinction between public and private patients n Reward well run hospitals by paying hospitals for the number of patients they treat and the quality of care they provide n Allow patients choose their own health insurer who will compete to deliver a uniform package of benefits Following the Dutch model, everyone will have the same basic insurance package giving them: n Regular health checks n Free access to GP care and an extended range of treatments in the community n Free hospital care and guaranteed waiting times FairCare
can save Merlin Park & University College Hospitals Galway See: www.FairCare.ie
Fair Protection:
Families need help to manage the risk in their lives. Redundancy, unsupportable debts, and unsafe pensions are real threats, even for the careful. Fine Gael is working on proposals to allow people pick up the pieces in such crises, and not fall into the poverty trap: – A fair chance to secure your home from repossession – A real opportunity to re-skill for new work – Safer pensions and a right to top up your Social Welfare pension. Fidelma with members & winners of the Oranmore Maree Voluteer Awards programme
Ireland needs a New Politics: The political system has let people down. Powerful interests were allowed to act as they pleased, cosying up to the Government who should have controlled them. n Catastrophic failures were rewarded with golden handshakes n Appalling waste and scandalous extravagance was tolerated n No Minister was ever willing to take responsibility n Warnings were contemptuously dismissed as the crisis developed. Government squandered the opportunity of economic success. Hundreds of new agencies, thousands of expensive consultants, millions on costly tribunals – but what has it all achieved? A new Politics must lead by example
becoming leaner and meaner in chasing down results, getting value for money, and demanding accountability. To achieve this Fine Gael proposes to: n Call a referendum to abolish the Seanad Richard and Fidelma meet YFG in NUIG to discuss the new n Cut the number of TDs by politics Ireland needs to embrace. at least 20 n Get the parties to work together in powerful This Programme will cut the cost of bipartisan committees politics by €50m but achieve much n Force powerful agencies to earn their more. money by demonstrating results
Smart State Ireland has a crazy system of Government. There are too many chiefs - too many agencies, too much bureaucracy. Frustrated workers at the frontline are trapped in a system that fails them. It gives them little freedom for manoeuvre or incentives to do better. It is those who depend on public services who are the victim of waste. We must harness the talent of our public services. Fine Gael proposes a new system to do that. Citizens will openly see the quality of the service they are getting. ● Revolutionise the way money is spent: - Linked to results - Open to scrutiny - Reward success - Stamp out waste
● Give users more voice and
more choice: - Waiting times revealed - Standards published - Diversity of providers
● Protect frontline services: - Streamline administration and inspection - Bring in new ways of working - Give more power locally - Pin responsibility for results
Leinster House Tour – See Parliament at Work I am happy to meet groups and organise tours of Leinster House for my constituents. The tour is well worthwhile. You’ll get a chance to see your representatives at work. Please contact my office on 01-6183144 to arrange a tour.
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Padraic McCormack T.D. Tel. 091 568688 Email: padraic.mccormack@oir.ie Cllr. Jarlath McDonagh Tel: 087 2346012 Email: johnjarlathmcdonagh@eircom. net Cllr. Seán Kyne Tel: 087 6137372 Email: kynesean@eircom.net Cllr. Eileen Mannion Tel: 087 9555645 Email: eileenmannionm@eircom.net
Cllr. Pádraig Conneely Tel: 087 2593886 Cllr. Brian Walsh Tel: 086 8333054 Email: brianwalsh100@eircom.net Cllr. Liam Carroll Tel: 087 6488684 Email: lcarroll@cllr.galwaycoco.ie Cllr. Hildegarde Naughton Tel: 086 4019325 Email: hildegarde.naughton@gmail. com
Senator Fidelma Healy Eames:
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Constituency Office: Harrmack House, Tuam Road, Galway. Tel: 091 768466, Tel: 01 6183742 (LH) fidelma.healy.eames@oir.ie www.fidelmahealyeames.ie
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