Sinn Fein accuses Fine Gael and Fianna Fail of orchestrating ‘sham row’

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are orchestrating a “sham row” for the cameras when they agree on “pretty much everything”, a Sinn Fein candidate has said.

The two main coalition parties have been publicly criticising each other’s policies since the Dail was dissolved on Friday.

Fine Gael minister Paschal Donohoe released a statement on Tuesday criticising Fianna Fail’s manifesto as “a lot to be desired”.

On Virgin Media’s Tonight Show, Fianna Fail minister Jack Chambers and Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton both called each other “disingenuous” in a debate on policy proposals.

The two parties, forged from opposing sides of the Civil War, entered government together for the first time in 2020.

They have stated regularly that the last government worked well, with the parties taking turns in the roles of taoiseach and finance minister over the four-year tenure.

Asked about the griping by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein’s Louise O’Reilly called the disagreements a display contrived for the cameras.

“It’s a bit of a sham row, to be honest, to see people who are so comfy and cosy together up until days ago, and all of a sudden now they’ve manufactured a little bit of pretend antagonism and a little bit of pretend difference,” she said.

She accused the two parties of being so similar “you couldn’t fit the width of a credit card” between them, and said they have “backed” and “supported” each other.

Referencing the Virgin Media debate, she said: “I laughed out loud at the Fine Gael representative last night on the television who was roaring at the Fianna Fail representative, who she voted for to be finance minister a couple of weeks ago.

“I don’t think they’re fooling anybody, I’m assuming they’re not fooling any of you guys, and I don’t think they’re fooling any of the public either.

“These people agree on pretty much everything. They agreed a programme for government, they fulfilled it, and they’re very cosy together. The theatrics that we see are just for the cameras.”

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have moved to differentiate themselves from one another in the first few days of the election campaign.

Fianna Fail’s proposal to decriminalise cannabis has come under fire from Fine Gael, with Simon Harris saying there are “real health dangers in relation to cannabis”.

Fine Gael’s proposal to introduce a 11% VAT rate for food-related businesses has been criticised by Fianna Fail as “regressive”, arguing that it would mean the tax on energy would have to increase.

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have both pledged to reduce childcare fees to 200 euro a month for each child, with Fine Gael capping it at 600 euro for more than three children and Fianna Fail pledging to set up a National Childcare Price Register.

Both parties have also pledged to keep two schemes for first-time buyers, Help-to-Buy and the First Home scheme.

Ms O’Reilly was speaking at the launch of her party’s position to protect and support workers, which includes a proposal to give workers the legal right to unionise.

Fine Gael on Monday launched their childcare policy, while Fianna Fail proposed an above-the-shop grant of 100,000 euro to encourage the refurbishment of city buildings into homes.

Separately, a “significant wave” of people have applied to join the electoral register ahead of polling day on Friday November 29, Ireland’s electoral commission said.

An Coimisiun Toghchain said there were 115,130 new voter applications since the start of November, with a further 50,541 applications received to update people’s existing registrations.

In the final two days before the deadline closed at midnight on Tuesday, almost 55,000 new voter applications and more than 21,000 update requests were received, it said.