SENIOR MINISTERS have said the two biggest challenges posed by the four-year fiscal plan and the budget are protecting the vulnerable and trying not to stymie growth.
In advance of yesterday evening’s special Cabinet meeting on budgetary matters at Farmleigh, several Ministers said the task facing the Government posed a daunting challenge.
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture Mary Hanafin said the process had been “painful and painstaking” and would take many more meetings to arrive at final decisions.
As well as last night’s meeting, the Cabinet is meeting all day today; Ministers have been told to keep Saturdays and Sundays flexible during November, to allow the multi-annual plan and the December 7th budget to be finalised.
Ms Hanafin told The Irish Timesthat arriving at the overall percentages and targets had been the easier task.
The difficulty was in making the detailed decisions to ensure they did not have an unfair impact on any one sector of society in addition to making sure that the cuts did not have an adverse effect on growth prospect.
“It’s when you break it down, what all this means for the individual and families and workers in the country,” Ms Hanafin said. “That’s why it has to be painstaking. Last year despite serious cuts I feel we got the balance right.
“An even bigger challenge is employment. We cannot be just balancing the books, we have to make sure that it’s fair. Not alone that but it will get people back to work,” she added.
Ms Hanafin said that a number of balances needed to be struck.
“We need to get the overall picture and get the finer detail right. We need balances between cuts and getting people back to work and keeping growth. We need the balance between taking money out of people’s pockets and encouraging people to spend. It’s a very difficult thing to balance.”
Asked what impact the austerity programme would have for Fianna Fáil, especially in the light of a series of very poor opinion poll findings for the party, she said the enormity of the crisis was bigger “than any political party or our own individual futures”.
Minister for Community and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey said the challenges were enormous and the budget would affect all sectors of society.
"The magnitude of the task has been enormous," he told The Irish Times. "There were 11 meetings in the run-up to the budget this year. I think we will have something similar this time.
“We have to make choices as to where the impact is going to fall. The issue of fairness is clearly important. We need to be fair and to be seen to be fair. It’s a delicate balance.
“It is up to us to persuade the people that we are doing it in their interest,” the Minister added. He said the process had been “collegial” and there had been no great divisions between departments, between ministers or between parties.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said no final decisions would be made at last night’s or today’s meetings. “This will go right up to the wire,” he told reporters on his way into Farmleigh last night.
This was the latest of a series of Cabinet meetings “since the last week in July and basically we’re going line by line through the estimates and the budget” and “nothing’s ruled out”.
He said every Minister was looking at every department “to make sure that as much as possible in the circumstances, we find ourselves that the decisions we make will be as fair as possible”.
He indicated however that the meeting would be preparation for challenges to the Opposition.
“Obviously tonight and tomorrow are important sessions because we have had the discussions with the Opposition leaders who thankfully committed to the 3 per cent of GDP by 2014.
“I think that’s an achievement because now at least anything that they say can be questioned.”
“Any of the promises or commitments they make can be questioned in the context of getting down GDP to 3 per cent by 2014.”
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said “very tough decisions” had to be made. “Today’s meeting is one of a series of meetings. All areas of Government expenditure in each department will be examined.”