TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen was accused in the Dáil of giving “back of an envelope” figures for the costs of rising unemployment.
During trenchant exchanges on the state of the economy, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore also accused Mr Cowen of producing “no plan, no strategy and no proposals” for the economy, in advance of the two-day Dublin debate on the issue to begin today.
In a staunch defence of the Government’s approach, Mr Cowen said, however, that a framework for economic renewal had been provided before Christmas.
“We said then that if we are to achieve those objectives we must restore order to our public finances. We begin on that road this week.”
The economic plan “will be acted upon in the coming weeks and months as we implement our policies”.
They had to bring stability to the “public finance position” to “bring about an adjustment of some €16.5 billion between taxation and expenditure cuts in the next five years”.
When Mr Gilmore said the Government had not set out the plan, the Taoiseach replied that “we have set out that plan and have forwarded it to the European Commission”.
The Labour leader said the “most important aspect of the country’s present economic problems is job losses”.
He said that 18 months ago on the day of the general election there were 154,000 people on the live register, a figure which had doubled, with some commentators saying that the figure could be as high as 420,000 by the end of this year.
He asked the Taoiseach the total cost “of the 120,000 extra people who went on to the live register in the course of the last year between social welfare payments, secondary benefits and lost tax revenue” and the estimate if unemployment rises to 420,000 by the end of the year.
Mr Cowen replied that for every extra 100,000 unemployed the social welfare cost alone was €1 billion. He said that “difficult choices will have to be made by the Government as we proceed.
“If we are to meet the clear challenge of upholding the principle of social solidarity”, then “the burden of adjustment will have to be equitably borne by everybody. That means those who have a greater capacity to carry that burden will have to do so.”
The Labour leader however said he was “utterly astonished” that the Taoiseach did not give a “ballpark figure” for the total cost to the exchequer of rising unemployment.
“He gave me a figure drawn up on the back of an envelope,” said Mr Gilmore.
He suggested the figure for 120,000 extra unemployed people was between €2 billion and €2.5 billion, including secondary benefits and the loss of tax revenue.
Claiming there was “no plan, no strategy and no proposals”, he said the Taoiseach’s “big idea” was to have discussions with the social partners, but there were “no specifics”.
Mr Cowen said the Government was “beginning step one in regard to 2009 by finalising our arrangements during the coming week and bringing to the House those savings of €2 billion”.
Thereafter “we will work with the social partners on an ongoing basis on the basis of an agreed framework for action as to how we deal with the problems that will arise as the recession perhaps continues, prolongs and deepens”.
