Comments on: Fianna Fail Won the General Election on the Economy… http://www.irishelection.com/2007/05/fianna-fail-won-the-general-election-on-the-economy/ Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:43:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: P O'Neill http://www.irishelection.com/2007/05/fianna-fail-won-the-general-election-on-the-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-51374 P O'Neill Tue, 29 May 2007 21:00:43 +0000 http://www.irishelection.com/05/fianna-fail-won-the-general-election-on-the-economy/#comment-51374 Two interpretations of the systematic underestimation of revenue: (1) incompetence (2) deliberate understatement by right-wing finance ministers not wanting the general public to get more demanding of the state by thinking that revenue is permanently higher. Of course (1) and (2) don't contradict each other. Notice how Bertie managed to make an issue out of how to pay for extra acute care beds even though revenue has always come in ahead of forecasts. So there does seem to be a public sense that the resource envelope is "tight". I agree completely about the economic management case but it was a challenge with the growth figures still figure good. The case needed to focus on inflation, the health of industry outside the tech/pharma sectors (e.g. <a href="http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0529/breaking50.htm" rel="nofollow">this news</a> today), and the whole benchmarking exercise. But the opposition for the most part chose not to fight on those grounds. Two interpretations of the systematic underestimation of revenue: (1) incompetence (2) deliberate understatement by right-wing finance ministers not wanting the general public to get more demanding of the state by thinking that revenue is permanently higher. Of course (1) and (2) don’t contradict each other. Notice how Bertie managed to make an issue out of how to pay for extra acute care beds even though revenue has always come in ahead of forecasts. So there does seem to be a public sense that the resource envelope is “tight”.

I agree completely about the economic management case but it was a challenge with the growth figures still figure good. The case needed to focus on inflation, the health of industry outside the tech/pharma sectors (e.g. this news today), and the whole benchmarking exercise. But the opposition for the most part chose not to fight on those grounds.

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