Cheaper pints and Irish sea border in Aontu’s ‘common sense’ manifesto

Cheaper pints, a new border agency and a junior minister for waste feature in Aontu’s election pledges.

Peadar Toibin, the party’s leader and only representative in the now-dissolved Dail, launched Aontu’s manifesto on Thursday morning.

Aontu, which describes its document as a “common-sense manifesto” focused on accountability, would establish a new junior minister to tackle waste in public spending.

Mr Toibin emphasised a series of controversies around public spending, including spiralling costs of the national children’s hospital, the 336,000 euro bike shed at Leinster House, and the 1.4 million euro security hut at Government Buildings.

He said a Taoiseach “who wasted so much money” would have been fired if they were in the private sector.

It said the new junior minister would have direct responsibility for “eradicating waste” in the public sector.

The party would also introduce new disciplinary measures in the job specifications for senior civil servants over public spending.

The party said it will adhere to a 5% spending growth limit, cap childcare costs at 100 euro per week, and provide a second means-tested child benefit to lift 40,000 children out of poverty, the latter move costing 700 million euro.

It would cut VAT in restaurants and pubs from 13.5% to 9%, at an expected cost of 545m euro.

Mr Toibin added that the party wanted to “help” Irish pubs by reducing the 10c charge per unit of alcohol sold in a pub.

He said: “I do believe a unit of alcohol consumed in a pub is a healthier pint, there’s a social dimension to it and a certain level of supervision in terms of quantities.”

Meanwhile, Aontu said it wanted to support the creation of a new “international city” on the west coast of Ireland.

However, Mr Toibin said he did not want to say where exactly the city should be.

Aontu would scrap the USC for all incomes below 50,000 in the next five years, at a cost of 1.9 billion euro.

It pledged to zero rate VAT on electricity while “prices remain high”.

On abortion, the party said it is committed to respectfully campaigning on its “right-to-life” stance.

Aontu said it would provide child benefit to mothers from four months into pregnancy, at a cost of 60 million euro.

However, Mr Toibin said the issue of abortion was “not coming up in the doors at all”.

It said it would spend 350 million euro to build accommodation specifically to key workers, nurses, doctors, teachers, gardai and construction workers, back to Ireland in a scheme the party has codenamed Operation Shamrock, while also providing returnees with a 5,000 euro relocation package and 10,000 euro tax credit.

Asked why the document does not have a section on the environment, Mr Toibin said the “environment is threaded through that document” and added that the party recognised there were negative consequences to man-made climate change.

Elsehwere, the party would cut excise duty on petrol and diesel, halt increases in carbon taxes, and cut road tolls.

Mr Toibin added: “Climate change is a priority to us.”

On immigration, Aontu has pledged to create a new agency for “border control, processing of applications and enforcement” while also promising the creation of a border in the Irish Sea for the movement of people.

It would reinstate planning restrictions around centres for asylum seekers, implement a “community dividend” for areas where migrants are hosted, and “enforce deportations”.

Mr Toibin accused Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman of being a “hypocrite” over planning laws, given that a members of his Green Party had objected to housing developments.

Aontu also said the minimum wage should reflect the living wage of 14.80 euro per hour, with additional considerations for those in the greater Dublin area.

The party said it would spend 348 million euro by recruiting 4,000 more gardai, adding that it opposes deregulation around drug use.

Copies of the manifesto were only made available to reporters 40 minutes into the party’s launch, having not been printed and stapled in time for the start of the event.

Mr Toibin said: “Aontu is the only party that is not State funded in relation to this and i.e. does not have the staff other political parties have – and the content of the document is very detailed, an enormous amount of work was done.”

Asked about Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin ruling out a future coalition agreement with Aontu over what he described as “arrogant and ignorant” comments from Mr Toibin, he added: “Given the housing crisis that we’re in, given the health crisis that we’re in, the spatial issues, the cost-of-living crisis, that a bruised ego of a politician should not get in the way of Government talks.”