SINN FÉIN Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has condemned the Budget as an effort by a “totally discredited Government to impose a Thatcherite economic strategy on the people”.

He said the social welfare cuts “are absolutely savage and it is people on social welfare who will bear the brunt”. Mr Ó Caoláin warned that it was imperative for whoever formed the next government to ensure this deal was abandoned, to devise a banking plan that will actually work, to reverse these ideological and irrational cuts and to introduce a strategy for real growth.

He also criticised Fine Gael and Labour, rejecting “their consensus for cuts”.

No party “entering power after the next election can claim a mandate to implement these cuts”. He appealed “especially to the Labour Party to halt before rushing headlong into a coalition with Fine Gael. It is clear that the Fine Gael party wants this savage Budget passed so that it does not have to pass it itself early in the new year.”

Maureen O’Sullivan (Ind, Dublin Central) said it was “frightening to think we’ll be spending more on annual repayments than funding our health and education systems”. The uncaring attitude towards those on the minimum wage was matched by the arrogance of refusing to consider increasing corporation tax, she said. Ms O’Sullivan said Ireland was a “semi-fraudulent tax haven for major international companies dodging paying their legitimate taxes in their own countries”.