Category Archives: Enda Kenny

The challenges that remain

This spring, the Irish people will be asked to make a very important decision – whether to elect a government which will continue on our present path towards recovery or else to choose an alternative option that will take the country in a different and potentially very uncertain direction.

I genuinely fear that to take the second option would be to jeopardise all the hard work and sacrifices of the Irish people in recent years which have brought the country to a much more secure place than we were in five years ago. We are now in a position of ongoing recovery, a recovery which we wish to see completed.

I was joined by the Tánaiste on Monday to reflect on the progress we have made, and also the challenges that remain, for the launch of the final annual report on the Programme for Government agreed between the Fine Gael and Labour parties in March 2011.

Your Hard Work Is Working

Thanks to your hard work and resilience our economy is recovering.

The question now is who will keep this recovery going?

We have a long-term economic plan that offers people the stability and certainty needed to keep the recovery going. Find out what we have delivered and how we plan to keep the recovery going in your area here: www.finegael.ie/area.

The next election will be a choice between those with a plan to keep the recovery going, or those who will put it at risk through instability and chaos.

We are determined not to let Ireland go back to those who wrecked our economy and our country or hand it to those who would kill jobs with new taxes on work and put at risk all we have achieved together.

Let’s keep the recovery going.

Very best wishes,
Enda Kenny TD
Taoiseach

Strengthening Ireland’s recovery

I will leave Munich later this afternoon, concluding what has been a very successful trade mission to the Netherlands and Germany.

Over the past two days, this particular trip has been focused on strengthening Ireland’s economic recovery by working towards advancing trade opportunities and attracting investment to Ireland in what is an increasingly important market.

On Wednesday, I met with senior executives of a global food corporation with operations in Ireland and visited a major pharmaceutical construction project outside Amsterdam involving a number of leading Irish engineering and construction firms.

I also travelled to Düsseldorf, where my engagements included meetings with various Irish SMEs who are attempting to increase their German market exports. In total, 17 contracts were signed by Irish companies in the Netherlands and Germany valued at approximately €57m, which is obviously very welcome news indeed. We now hope to build on that success even further.

Weekly Message From An Taoiseach Enda Kenny

The final European Council meeting of 2015 has been dominated by two key issues- ongoing migration into Europe and Britain’s potential to remain a central member of EU. Yesterday evening was dominated by David Cameron putting forward his case in this regard to his political colleagues.

Despite the very strong levels of support there is in terms of this particular issue, there are some points of contention that need to be worked out and as long as the open and frank discussions on this very important issue continue in the coming weeks I certainly hope this will be the case.

Strong record on the economy

Ahead of the General Election in the Spring, we had a very good and productive meeting in Leinster House involving Fine Gael TDs Senators and candidates on Wednesday. Our message to them was very clear – that the central focus for Fine Gael will be to keep the recovery going in light of the Party’s very strong record on the economy since taking office in 2011. Our focus will also be on the creation of more jobs, the reduction of taxes and the creation of better opportunities to invest in public services. Together, this will form the core theme for our Party in the General Election.

Deputy John O’Mahony’s book ‘O’Mahony: Keeping the Faith’ is now on sale in bookshops and online. Having read it myself, I can personally recommend it to you as a very good read and stocking filler if you happen to be buying for a GAA enthusiast this Christmas. John’s record as a manager speaks for itself, having guided Leitrim to their only Connaught title in 1994, and winning All-Irelands with Galway twice, in 1998 and 2001.

Another boost today

Dear Friend,

Ireland’s ever-increasing position as a major European digital hub received yet another boost today with the news that the working professionals’ social networking site, Linkedin, is to create a further 100 jobs here. This company already employs a very significant 900 here and I was invited earlier today to visit the site of its new building at Wilton Terrace in Dublin city centre where work has just commenced on the ‘above ground’ phase. It is expected to be complete at the beginning of 2017.

Of course, the Government is committed to maintaining Ireland’s attractiveness as a hub for new investment such as this, and for that reason, we prioritised many pro-growth and pro-job policies in the Budget for 2016. In order to make work pay we are tackling the marginal tax rates on middle income earners, and are reducing the marginal rate of tax to below 50% for all earners under €70,000. If re-elected for a second term, we will also continue to phase out the USC in future budgets, while also reforming the income tax system to cap benefits for the highest earners and to keep the income tax system broad. These measures, in turn, should help us to maintain Ireland’s position a dynamic, attractive place for big global players such as Linkedin to invest.

Update From Michael, Richard & Simon

Dear Friend,

As I told you last week I appointed Michael Noonan, Richard Bruton and Simon Harris to begin finalising a new long term economic plan to keep the recovery going.

This week they briefed me and our Ministers on their progress so far. They have identified three key steps to achieving this goal:

• Continue the relentless focus on jobs by creating even more job opportunities all over Ireland. By protecting our 12.5% rate of corporation tax, lowering taxes on jobs and smaller Irish-owned businesses and investing in infrastructure, we will accelerate the pace of job creation, with employment levels to increase by almost 200,000 by 2020.
• Ensure that a job always pays more than welfare and that those who want to work feel it’s really worth it. This means abolishing the USC over five years, further sensible increases in the minimum wage, welfare reforms designed to encourage work and additional measures to ease childcare costs.
• Use increased revenues to fund affordable improvements in public services. More people at work means more tax revenues to provide frontline services such as nurses, guards and teachers. Unlike the reckless spending of Fianna Fail in the 2000s, we will cap the growth of Government spending below the underlying growth rate of the economy and eliminate the deficit by 2018.

Our long term plan will finish the job and bring the benefits of the recovery to every home in the country.

All workers will be better off

This week I officially launched the Fine Gael budget calculator with Minister Simon Harris.

Cutting taxes on work is a central part of our plan to keep the recovery going.

Fine Gael in Government ditched Fianna Fail’s bailout commitment to further increase income taxes.

After Budget 2016, 700,000 people will be exempt from paying any USC and our pledge is to remove this penal tax altogether. We are also reducing the marginal rate of tax to 49.5% for all workers earning between €33,800 and €70,000.

Our budget package put about a week’s earnings on average into the pockets of low- and middle-income working families and provides people with a greater incentive to take up more work, to start a business or to take up more overtime.

A new long term plan

As our preparations for the general election in the Spring gather pace, I have asked Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to lead a team including Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton and Minister of State at the Department of Finance Simon Harris to finalise a new long term economic plan to keep the recovery going as the platform for Fine Gael’s campaign for re-election.

The plan will outline a mix of both short-term steps, including USC abolition as part of a wider reform of the tax and welfare systems, designed to create more jobs and make work pay, as well as longer-term plans to re-build services and end the boom and bust cycles that have wrecked the Irish economy twice in the last generation.

It will underpin the broader suite of Fine Gael commitments to be contained in the election manifesto, the preparation of which is being currently finalised by Minister Simon Coveney.

I believe that the plan will break new political ground for showing the impact of steady growth and sensible management of the public finances on jobs, public services and incomes not just over the life of the next Government, but well into the next decade.

Very best wishes.

Yours sincerely,
Enda Kenny TD
Taoiseach

Attack On Paris

Last January I walked through the streets of Paris with President Hollande and other world leaders after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Then we joined the President and the French people to offer total solidarity and support.

We offer the same support once again. Aujourd’hui et toujours l’Irlande tient ferme avec la France.

A week has passed since those terrible events in Paris. The cruelty and barbarity of the deliberate destruction of innocent joy, the joy of people out for the night, is almost unprecedented. It requires an unprecedented response.

We remain steadfast and united in our determination to counter the threat posed by global terrorism and all forms of radicalism.

We are also clear that the terrible crimes of a small number of extremists, such as we have seen in Paris and indeed elsewhere, do not reflect the views of the Muslim community anywhere.