Fine Gael wants to reduce judges pay within 12 months of going into Government and hold the children’s rights referendum on the same day as the Presidential election later this year.
Outlining the party’s political reform proposals in Dublin this morning, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he hoped to hold a “Constitution Day” during which citizens would vote on proposals including reducing the number of TDs by 20, cutting the President’s term from seven to five years and abolishing the Seanad.
The party’s spokesman on justice Alan Shatter said the judiciary had been “immune” from reductions in public sector pay. He said constitutional change was required to alter this situation, and such a proposal would also be put to the people on “Constitution Day”.
Mr Shatter said Fine Gael wanted to “remove their immunity from being affected by enormous economic difficulties that affected the country and will ensure that they will be affected by the same salary reductions that have been applied to the public service”.
Separately, spokesman on children Charlie Flanagan confirmed that a referendum on children’s rights would be a “real priority” for a Fine Gael-led administration.
“There is a window of opportunity later this year in the context of the presidential election in the autumn and we would be aiming to have the matter of the children’s right’s referendum dealt with in conjunction with the presidential election,” Mr Flanagan said.
“Every day that goes by without a referendum acknowledging the voice of children in the constitution is a poor day for children.”
Meanwhile, responding to increasingly-positive poll results for Fine Gael, Mr Kenny said the party would not be distracted or become complacent and would “run this election very hard”. He said the only parties Fine Gael was ruling out as coalition partners were Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, when asked if the Greens would be acceptable.
Responding to Dermot Desmond’s proposals for political reforms, outlined in The Irish Times this weekend, Fine Gael’s director of elections Phil Hogan said: “Interestingly enough Fianna Fail decided to implement a lot of the proposals that were in that document because they had no views of their own”.
