ALL GOVERNMENT backbenchers would support the four-year economic plan and the budget, Minister for Defence Tony Killeen has said.
“I have been in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for 18 years, and I notice a resolve on the part of TDs that they are not going to be the people who let down the country and place our sovereignty at risk,” he said.
Mr Killeen was responding to opposition among Fianna Fáil backbenchers to a reduction in the non-contributory old-age pension. Former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke drew support from colleagues last week when she warned at a party meeting that a cut would result in Fianna Fáil becoming a “fringe” group.
Mr Killeen said there were occasional “nuances” about going easy on certain groups in advance of a budget. “The difficulty is that if you got 10 people, there would be 10 different groups you should go easy on,” he added. “But there is a recognition that come next spring, far worse is in store for us if we are not in the bond markets at a credible level.”
Mr Killeen said he could not see “anybody looking at this intelligently jumping overboard, to be caught in the headlights like a frightened rabbit within three or four months”.
Asked about reports of tension between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party on the cut in education, Mr Killeen said there were former teachers and ministers for education sitting at the Cabinet table. “Issues related to education would be likely to get a good airing, in the first instance, at Cabinet,” he added.
“There would be an acknowledgement of the value of education.”
Gradually, he said, people were beginning to realise there was “no area of public expenditure that can be parked and left in splendid isolation in the context to trying to address the €19.5 billion deficit”.
He said the Government had to go back to the money markets next year and convince them that the State was serious about addressing the deficit. “Ultimately, by the most credible means possible, we need to get ourselves in a position where the bond markets believe we are a good bet and lend to us at a rate we can afford.”
He said the Cabinet’s budgetary discussions were in an unusual situation, and everybody realised what needed to be done. “So I think there is a level of maturity and understanding within Cabinet that is not recognised outside,” said the Minister.
