Bruton backs Government actions on economy

By Paul O’Brien, Political Correspondent

Monday, March 01, 2010

A THIRD former Fine Gael leader has backed some of the Government actions taken to combat the economic crisis.

John Bruton has joined Alan Dukes and Garret FitzGerald in supporting key aspects of government economic policy.

Mr Bruton, the former EU ambassador to Washington and brother of Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton, described the December Budget as an important first step to restoring the public finances to health. "Most people would accept the Government has faced up to the (economic) problem in a very serious way," Mr Bruton told the Sunday Times.

"Unlike almost all the EU countries in crisis, we’ve made a serious effort to combat it. Most people would agree, in relation to the budget, it was an important first step in terms of bringing our revenue back in line with our spending."

Mr Bruton said he did not believe his views were inconsistent with Fine Gael’s, saying the party was more concerned about the lack of a jobs stimulus in the budget rather than its cuts. Fine Gael agreed with the Government approach of cutting spending by €4bn in the budget, but differed significantly on how the cuts should be achieved.

The party also argued in its pre-budget submission that €500 million should be put towards a jobs stimulus plan to put 50,000 people back to work. Mr Bruton stressed he believed the Government should be doing more to create employment.

"The current government, of course, created the economic problem," Mr Bruton said. "I’m just saying that the last budget was the first step in fixing it.

"What Fine Gael is concerned about is that there isn’t enough of a creative next step in terms of job creation," he said.

But even though Mr Bruton criticised Government jobs policy, his broad support for the budget won’t be welcomed by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

Last autumn, Mr FitzGerald said it was crucial the Government survive long enough to implement its budget and NAMA proposals to restore stability and ward off the prospect of IMF intervention.

Mr Dukes went further, delivering a withering put-down of Fine Gael’s proposed "good bank-bad bank" proposal, saying it was "very cumbersome, very doubtful of success and much less clear in effect than the NAMA proposal".

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 01, 2010