THE Government has made commitments worth many millions of pounds since the Budget to placate four interest groups in the run up to the general election the nurses, the rural water charges lobby, the hepatitis C victims and the MMDS lobby.
It offered more than £100 million extra in salary increases and back money this year to the State's 27,000 nurses to honour the Labour Court settlement of their threatened strike.
The initial cost of the settlement was £87 million, but nurses were also offered £27 million in back money.
To facilitate the settlement, the Government was obliged to agree a £49 million package to fund the nurses pay increases. It finalised the package in March.
In the final part of a three part attempt to abolish all domestic water charges at the end of March, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, announced a £7.23 million package of subsidies to 145,000 rural households.
In a bid to placate the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, Mr Howlin proposed that an interim payment of £20 or £45, depending on whether the water is publicly or privately sourced, be awarded to the 145,000 householders to co incide with the expected election in May.
The Minister also announced a new capital grants scheme to assist with the provision or upgrading of the water supply.
But, besides the £7.23 million annual cost of subsidies, the Minister could not calculate the cost of the capital grants because they were a demand led scheme.
It has since emerged that the three party package to abolish water charges will cost £600 million over 10 years.
Also in March, the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, sought to end the dispute with Positive Action, the lobby group for hepatitis C victims, by putting the Compensation Tribunal on a statutory basis and enabling it to pay special damages.
Yesterday the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications Mr Dukes, announced he would be bringing proposals to the Cabinet to placate the demands of the rural MMDS/deflector lobby.
