One hundred years of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in Government was enough, People Before Profit (PBP) said in its election manifesto as it sought to appeal to voters on “rent hell”, childcare and workers’ rights.
PBP leader Richard Boyd Barrett outlined several key areas for the party, with a 40-page manifesto promising “another Ireland is possible”.
Speaking at the document’s launch in Dublin, he said the party wanted to “radically transform the situation in Ireland” through housing measures, giving working people “a break”, and expanding free public services.
“We’re socialists, and we believe that key public services such as health, education, childcare, and public transport should be free at the point of use and paid for through progressive taxation,” he said.
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The party would declare a “housing emergency” and ban “vulture funds” from the sector.
It is among those who have called for the foundation of a State construction company to build 30,000 social and 5,000 affordable housing units per year, financed through the Apple back taxes.
Elsewhere on housing, it would introduce rent controls and reinstate the eviction ban.
It would abolish the Universal Social Charge for those earning less than 100,000 euro, while also introducing a “multimillionaires tax” on wealth over 4.7 million euro – a move it says could raise eight billion euro next year.
It said it could raise a further 27 billion euro next year through new tax bands on top earners, higher PRSI rates for employers and introducing a 20% corporation tax rate with fewer avoidance loopholes.
PBP wants to cap essential food prices and cut electricity bills by returning the ESB to a not-for-profit mandate. It would also cap mortgage interest rates at 3% and abolish the carbon tax by putting a “levy on the big polluters instead”.
The party would introduce a living wage of at least 15 euro per hour, while also implementing mandatory union recognition and 12 months’ paid leave for each parent – as well as increased annual leave of 30 days for all and two extra bank holidays.
It would introduce protection from dismissal from an employee’s first day on the job, while also introducing a four-day working week without loss of pay.
PBP wants to raise pension and benefits to 300 euro, with disability payments rising to 350 euro. It would also abolish the means test for carers allowance.
On health, it wants private hospitals brought under public control alongside the introduction of free GP care and the abolition of health-related charges.
Meanwhile, PBP said it would establish a fully publicly-owned national service to provide free childcare.
People Before Profit representatives, including Richard Boyd Barrett, centre right, at the party’s manifesto launch (Cillian Sherlock/PA)
The party is calling for the abolition of all education-related charges.
It would end the current direct provisions scheme for asylum seekers and give refugees the right to work.
On the climate, it would start a “major programme” to reduce emissions by at least 10% per year while introducing free public transport, ramping up investment in renewable and retrofitting, and reducing the national herd.
The party would expel the Israeli ambassador to Dublin and cut all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, while preventing the US military from using Shannon Airport to transport goods.
Elsewhere, on foreign policy, PBP would withdraw from the EU’s security arrangement Pesco over concerns about alignment with Nato.
The party would legalise cannabis and promote not-for-profit cannabis clubs. It would also ban hare coursing, fox hunting and greyhound racing.
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It would also scrap the TV licence – along with advertising and sponsorship revenue – for RTE and other public broadcasters, replacing it with a 100% public-funded model raised from corporation tax levies on ICT companies.
PBP has categorically ruled out entering into a future coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, instead calling for a “left government with a radical agenda for change”.
The party’s candidates have pledged to take the “average wage” if elected, devoting the remainder of a TD’s salary of 113,679 euro towards campaigning and community organisations. It forms part of its proposal to cut salaries of all TDs, saying they are currently paid “too much”.
It would further ban former ministers from taking up posts as lobbyists and stop the use of outside consultants in the political system.
It would abolish the non-jury Special Criminal Court and repeal the Public Order Act which gives gardai powers to police protests and demonstrations.