Election 2020: Parties woo electorate with deals on pensions and health — and a new SSIA

Pension deals for early retirees, abolishing hospital charges for children, SSIA schemes for aspirant home-owners, and income tax breaks are among the sweeteners Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will unleash this week in their bid to win the general election.

Election 2020: Parties woo electorate with deals on pensions and health — and a new SSIA

Pension deals for early retirees, abolishing hospital charges for children, SSIA schemes for aspirant home-owners, and income tax breaks are among the sweeteners Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will unleash this week in their bid to win the general election.

Fianna Fáil will today outline a series of major investments in healthcare services, including the creation of 4,000 nursing posts.

The Irish Examiner has learned that, in addition to creating the new posts, the party, if in government, will also seek to end the pay inequality for newer workers hired since 2011, at a cost of €20m.

In a major policy announcement to be delivered by the party’s health spokesman, Stephen Donnelly, Fianna Fáil has promised to double the National Treatment Purchase Fund from €100m to €200m so nobody will wait more than six months for treatment.

The party is also looking to create a new office for budget responsibility within the Department of Health in a bid to end major cost overruns such as the National Children’s Hospital.

Fine Gael, reeling from a disastrous weekend opinion poll which placed them 12 points behind Fianna Fáil, is to ditch its Brexit-laden approach of the first week of the campaign, focusing instead today on healthcare and new family supports.

Simon Harris, the health minister, is to announce today that he intends abolishing hospital stay charges for children as part of a wider health briefing.

The party’s campaign director and finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, said there was “no panic” internally about the poll, saying he and his colleagues are “very composed”.

Several Fine Gael ministers have called for a shift in the party’s messaging, but all stopped short of describing the poll result as a “crisis”.

“We are just coming out of the first weekend of the campaign,” one senior minister told the Irish Examiner.

“We expected we would be somewhat behind, given where we are in the political cycle. There is a long way to go.”

Leo Varadkar confirmed his party’s intention to keep the retirement age for workers at 67, but said a transitionary pension will be introduced for those people forced by their companies to retire at 65.

“There are some anomalies that need to be fixed,” he said, “and one of those anomalies, in my view, is people who are required to retire before the age of 66, or even before the age of 67, and what we propose to do there is to bring in a transition pension or an early retirement pension, like existed in the past for those who are contractually required to retire earlier.”

Micheal Martin speaks to reporters outside RTE television studio in Dublin. (Aine McMahon/PA Wire)
Micheal Martin speaks to reporters outside RTE television studio in Dublin. (Aine McMahon/PA Wire)

Mr Martin said that, if elected to government, he would seek to “outlaw contracts that force people to retire at 65”.

“If on the one hand the State is saying the pension age should go to 67, then having people for two years in a limbo situation is not sustainable and acceptable,” he added.

He said the party would review moving retirement to 67 on the basis that there needs to be what he called a “level playing pitch”.

He said compulsory retirement at 65 needs to change and he would look for “graduated retirement”.

Sinn Féin has said that, if in government, it would reverse the pension age increase back to 65.

Mr Martin also confirmed his party would unveil a policy to bring back a Special Savings Incentive Allowance (SSIA) type scheme to help young people save up for deposits on housing.

He said his government would provide €1 for each €3 saved up to €10,000. A similar SSIA scheme for the general population was operated between 2003 and 2007.

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