Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin TD has responded to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s claim that he will shortly publish a ‘five year plan’ for the country.

Deputy Martin commented, “A lot of people around the country will be very sceptical when they hear Enda Kenny making any promises about the next five years. He has no credibility when it comes to making promises. They know from experience that he and his party will say absolutely anything to secure votes and they know that the series of promises that he made about the last five years came to very little.

“At the moment he is running a twin track strategy – one minute promising in all sincerity that he’ll not be spending any money for electoral purposes and that he has abolished the economic cycle, while at the very same time sending ministers out with leaked spending promises in every sector. Over just the last week, almost every media outlet has had ‘news’ of a different multi million euro spending programme.

“The Fine Gael Leader’s strategy of promising whatever it took in every single constituency to get votes, before breaking those promises or denying that he ever made them in the first place, worked for him in 2011. However, people now know that he leads a government of spin and broken promises.

“If you just look at health, it is clear how the Government does its business. The electorate were promised in 2011 that there would be a Universal Health Insurance system in place within five years and that there would be an end to waiting lists. Five years on and UHI is as far away as ever, waiting lists are breaking all records and the health service is in absolute crisis.

“People have already been misled by Mr Kenny’s Fine Gael party. They will be very careful before falling for his false promises again.”