THE CABINET will meet again on Monday to hammer out details of the four-year budget plan which will involve an adjustment of €15 billion in spending cuts and tax increases.
Speculation that the 2011 budget planned for December 7th will be brought forward to coincide with the publication of the four-year plan was played down yesterday by senior Government figures.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen speaking in Brussels said December 7th was still the date the Government was working on for next year’s budget.
He said the current round of Cabinet meetings was focused on the four-year plan, which would have to be completed by the middle of November.
Ministers met again yesterday afternoon, but Mr Cowen was not back from Brussels in time for the meeting, chaired by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan.
Speaking to reporters in Limerick last night, Mr Cowen noted the country was funded up to July of next year, but emphasised that the deficit had to be reduced.
“While there is justifiable anger about that aspect of the problem about how we got here, it is the Government’s job and everyone’s else’s job that we get access to credit at the right price,” he said.
Mr Cowen said one of the reasons why the public finances had to be put in order was that it would reduce the cost of money for Ireland to borrow as a state. That in turn would reduce the cost for banks, and enable them to get access to wholesale markets to give credit to businesses in rural and urban Ireland to maintain jobs and create investment.
“That is what I am trying to get across, and rather than us complaining about the symptom of the problem, we have to go to the core of the problem and deal with that – and that is why the four-year plan and getting this budget in place and moving forward has to be the priority,” he said.
It was important to maintain many of the social and economic gains that had been seen in the country over the past two decades, he continued. “For example there are nearly half a million people now still working than there was in 1997, having come through the worst recession in 70 years.
“If we are going to address the unemployment problem and create more jobs than are being lost, we have to put our public finances in order. That is the only way you will get people to invest if you have a predictable way forward,” he said, adding that the changes brought in since he had become Taoiseach in 2008 had amounted to €14.5 billion, so the country was half way there.
“But there is a further adjustment in the next four budgets of €15 billion. Now it does not get any easier, according you go along that adjustment path.
“But it has to be done and what we have to try and do is find the best way forward and the balance between the impact of cuts and expenditure which are unavoidable, as well as providing some growth potential in the economy to ensure we get through and over time see the economy recover.”
He said a lot of solidarity was being shown in enterprises up and down the country that did not get much public recognition, and come only to the attention of people in these businesses who keep them going.
Asked about State cars, he said he wanted to make the point the Government had reduced the cost of Government right across the board.
“Our own salaries, and quite rightly so, my own by 30 per cent. We show by example. That is important in itself, the statement it makes.
“At the end of the day the difference between what we are spending and what we are earning is €19.5 billion, and we will continue to look at how we reduce that. The central issue is we have to get spending and revenue back into line over a period of years,” he said.