It can no longer be assumed that the coalition Government will run a full term as the Budget controversies have "shaken the parties in government to the core", Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said today.
Mr Gilmore made the remarks after Taoiseach Brian Cowen's insistence yesterday that the education cuts announced in the Budget would not be reversed, despite growing pressure for another Government climbdown.
The Labour leader said that following the events of the past 10 days people could no longer assume that the coalition would now run its course.
Mr Gilmore said the Budget controversy was "far from over" and that the Government was facing a "winter of discontent".
"There is a growing realisation of the damage that will be done by the education cuts and Government backbenchers will have to face the fury of parents and teachers when the Dáil debates the Labour motion [seeking a reversal of the decision on class sizes] next week."
He noted the Seanad will also next week discuss a Labour Party motion seeking a reversal of cuts affecting children with disabilities.
"When the Government was elected in June 2007 it was widely assumed, given that it had a comfortable majority, that it would run its course until 2012. That assumption can no longer be relied upon."
Mr Gilmore said the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance had "failed their first major economic and political test" by bringing in a Budget that, in its original form, they were "clearly incapable of getting through the Dáil".
"The political credibility of the Taoiseach and all the members of Cabinet who approved this budget, has been seriously damaged."
The Labour leader said the period since Tuesday of last week had seen "the most remarkable period in our political life", probably since the events that led to the resignation of Albert Reynolds as taoiseach in 1994.
"In that short period we have seen the biggest budget shambles, possibly in the history of the State; the withdrawal of support for the Government by two deputies, and the resignation of a number of councillors from government parties; a major retreat by the government on two key elements of the budget; claims by the deputy leader of the Green Party that her party had threatened to walk out of government last weekend; an unprecedented public backlash against the government, manifested in the biggest street demonstrations on social or economic issues since the 1980s and an admission by the Taoiseach that his authority has been undermined."
In a briefing for Irish journalists accompanying him on a trade mission to China, Mr Cowen was asked whether there would be any modification of the education measures in the Budget, particularly the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio.
"We have to respect the budgetary parameters that we have," replied Mr Cowen. "We've made that decision; it's one of the decisions we had to make in the education area in order to compensate for other add-on costs which were unavoidable, and that's the context in which these decisions are taken."
Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae has raised doubts over his support for the Government in the Dáil vote on the Labour motion on class sizes next week.
He is demanding that the Budget plan to increase the pupil-teacher ratio be reversed, and has arranged a meeting with Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe next week to discuss his concerns.
"I am not at all satisfied with the overall impact the Budget changes will have in education, such as the pupil-teacher ratio increase and the suspension of substitution cover for short-term sick leave and school business," Mr Healy-Rae said.
Two Fianna Fáil councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown yesterday attacked the Government over medical cards and class sizes and accused the Taoiseach and his Ministers of being out of touch with the lives of ordinary people. "They are also out of touch with the membership of Fianna Fáil," said Cllrs Gerry Horkan and Barry Conway.
Concern about the education cuts has also been expressed by Green Party councillors who want the decision reversed, as does Paul Gogarty TD, who said yesterday that he opposed the Budget measure increasing the pupil-teacher ratio.
The Labour Party Dáil motion deplores the education cuts and calls on the Government to reverse the decision to increase class sizes at primary and secondary levels.
Labour spokesman on education Ruairí Quinn maintained that the range of cutbacks that emerged from the Budget and from the subsequent announcement by Mr O'Keeffe would cause "enormous damage" to the education system.
He accused the Fianna Fáil-led Government of reneging on commitments it had made to reduce class sizes in its 2002 and 2007 programmes for government.
The Dáil debate will last for six hours on Wednesday and Thursday, and the vote will be called on Thursday morning. Primary school managers said yesterday that the proposed changes would cause chaos in schools.
The seven management bodies of more than 3,000 primary schools have united to combat what they described as "discriminatory and morally unsustainable'' Budget cuts.
Sinn Féin, meanwhile, said would hold a series of protests at the constituency offices of Ministers and junior ministers this weekend to call for the "savage" budget cuts to be reversed.