BUDGET CHOICES made by the Government neither deal with nor answer questions of fairness, jobs or competitiveness, according to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

He said the Budget “does not add up from top to bottom” and the failure of the talks with public sector unions had left “a very sullen, deeply resentful public service”.

During the Dáil debate on the Budget Mr Kenny told Brian Cowen: “I believe the Achilles’ heel of your Government, Taoiseach, is not just in the Budget but it’s to do with Anglo Irish Bank. I believe that this is the fundamentally weak spot where you are concerned,” he said.

He had heard the Minister for Finance on RTÉ talking about nationalising the banks, yet the reason for establishing the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) was to avoid such a move. “The problem is that the golden circle is still complete. People are in jail in America but we still have no evidence of any prosecution pending here.”

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said “some 40,000 people are expected to leave Ireland next year. This is what the silver-spoon wing of the Cabinet has brought on the heads of the sons and daughters of honest people who pay for everything and qualify for nothing.

“That was the Ireland we should have left behind. That is the Ireland that does not have to be; but always, when one puts Fianna Fáil in charge, it will buy votes until there is no money left.

“Twice in a generation, Fianna Fáil has brought this country to ruin. It is never the wealthy or the greedy who are forced to carry the can. For Fianna Fáil now to describe itself as a republican party is almost grotesque.”

The Budget “is based not on national unity or common purpose or social solidarity but on division, conflict and greed”. Fianna Fáil has “turned its back on the people and on its own traditions. Seán Lemass believed in public service and in a strong State sector in the Irish economy. Fianna Fáil is no longer the party of Lemass. Fianna Fáil is the Celtic Tories,” said Mr Gilmore.

The Budget, he went on, “is a Tory dream come to life: hammer public services; attack public servants; kick the poor and let the wealthy and the influential off scot free. The ideology that got us into this mess is running riot again.”

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the Minister for Finance’s speech “must rank as one of the greatest examples of self-delusion we have ever had”.

“He told us ‘we are on the road to economic recovery’. Who does he think he is kidding? Like a first World War general, the Minister told us . . . this is the last big push. If it was the last big push, we know who he’s sending over the top – the low-paid workers and their families, the social welfare recipients, the carers and the young unemployed.”