Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said today his party will not back the Government over next month's budget to further limit the coalition's chances of getting harsh austerity cuts past a slim Dáil majority.
"No, I'm not and I'll tell you why. I have no faith in this Government," Mr Kenny said when asked whether he would vote in favour of the budget.
"This Government have no credibility left and somebody needs a new mandate. If the Government are as confident as they say they are about their budget, then they could have an election before then," the Fine Gael leader said, speaking on RTÉ.
Unlike Labour, however, Mr Kenny said he broadly agreed with next year's €6 billion figure and the four-year aimed adjustment of €15 billion and that Fine Gael would look to rely on spending cuts rather than tax increases to slim Ireland's budget deficit.
Earlier today, Fine Gael unveiled a plan it says will radically overhaul public services and change the way Government does business.
Speaking at the launch of the “Reinventing Government” document in the Morrison Hotel, Dublin, Mr Kenny and enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said fundamental change was needed to ensure State services are protected and the economy is put back on track.
“The public sector has a key role to play in rebuilding Ireland. We believe that the vast majority of public servants do an absolutely vital job and recognise that many public servants feel they are being unfairly targeted as a result of a crisis they did not create," Mr Kenny said.
Among the actions that Fine Gael is pledging is the abolition of more than 145 State bodies and companies including the dismantling of the HSE and Fás and their replacement with more cost effective alternatives; the saving of €5 billion through tackling waste, duplication and inefficiency; and the external recruitment of high level specialists in banking, taxation and macro economic forecasting "to improve the Departments of Finance’s capacity to deliver on key tasks".
The party also plans to make at least one-third of senior appointments in the public service from outside the current system for five years. All lobbyists would be with the Standards in Public Office Commission under the plan, while recent restrictions to the Freedom of Information Act would be reversed.
Fine Gael also promises to set up an "Independent Fiscal Council", accountable to the Oireachtas Finance Committee, that would advise on issues such as borrowing levels, debt reduction and taxation planning. Pay for public service executives would be capped at €200,000.
Mr Kenny said the current crisis represented an opportunity to release the "full potential of all who serve the public and a chance to say 'never again' to the behaviour of the past that has cast such a shadow on our future".
Mr Bruton said a reinvention of government "must be a foundation stone" of economic renewal instead of the present model of Government, "which is serving only to make things worse".
“Thousands of public servants are presently trapped in a system that is failing them. Fine Gael has a plan to make a step change in the way our public services are run that will reward effort and ingenuity and penalise waste and inefficiency," Mr Bruton said.
“Unless there is a fundamental change in the way Government does its business, it will continue to be part of the problem rather than the solution. We need a Public Service that is smaller, better and one that gets things done," Mr Bruton and Mr Kenny said in a statement.
