Sinn Féin spokesperson for Finance Pearse Doherty has described the economic plans laid out in the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s joint document as incoherent and dishonest.

The Donegal TD has criticised the document for lacking detail, while laying the path for austerity in the future.

Teachta Doherty said: “The document produced by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is an economic con job built on sand. 

“Despite promising a ‘New Social Contract’, the document is deeply conservative with austerity written between the lines.

“While the two parties make vague promises without any clear commitments in health, housing, childcare and climate action, their economic plans give the game away.

“The two parties’ only firm commitment is to reduce the deficit through strict compliance with conservative European fiscal rules.

“Given the two parties are categorically ruling out progressive taxation, their economic plans pave the way for a squeeze on our pubic services.

“The only conclusion that can be drawn is that both parties are preparing the way for more of the same, with vague promises that will never be delivered and continued under-investment in our public services and housing provision.

“The economic plan put forward in this paper is economically incoherent and fundamentally dishonest. It is not the change people voted for.

“At this time of crisis, when the need for a social Europe has never been more urgent, both parties commit to deeper European integration without any mention of reforming the European Stability and Growth Pact, which hardwires austerity into fiscal policy at times of crisis.

“In fact, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promise strict adherence to the EU Stability and Growth Pact as a central plank of their economic strategy.

“Together with their other economic priorities, this a policy of failure, which lacks the ambition necessary to deliver necessary change.

“Sinn Féin have long advocated for  the fundamental reform of the EU fiscal rules and Stability and Growth Pact, which with their hawkish obsession with deficits. 

“The economic plans of this document make the implementation of a Green New Deal and ambitious public housing programme impossible. It is a vision of the past, not the future.”