IRELAND MUST adopt a robust and clear budget strategy if the country is to avoid intervention by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the chairman of Goldman Sachs International has warned.

Speaking at the University of Limerick yesterday, Peter Sutherland said he was happy the Government had decided on a €6 billion savings package for 2011, and he insisted it was “imperative” next month’s budget was passed.

The former Irish attorney general and EU commissioner highlighted the dangers facing the country if the budget failed or if there was a prolonged period of uncertainty regarding the formation of government.

Mr Sutherland also said any intervention by the International Monetary Fund and the EU in taking the reins of the Irish economy would represent a failure by the Irish political system to face up to the challenge posed by the deficit in our public finances

The chairman of Goldman Sachs International is confident the Government will succeed in passing the budget, and disagreed with his colleague Erik Nielsen, Goldman’s chief European economist, who said this week there was a “real risk” the Irish Government would not be able to get December’s budget passed.

“I think the Government will pass the budget, and I think anybody recognising the extent of our dilemma must realise that it is imperative that the budget be passed.

“There is no question about that, and I disagree with anyone coming to a negative conclusion about that,” he said.

Mr Sutherland was invited to Limerick yesterday to deliver a lecture at the official opening of the Jim Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick.

During his address he referred to the “cataclysmic” events relating to Ireland’s public finances, but insisted IMF intervention was not inevitable.

“I firmly believe that the intervention of the IMF and EU in taking the reins of our economy is neither inevitable nor desirable,” Mr Sutherland said.