European Commission may tell Ireland to further curb spending

IRELAND could be asked to make further cuts to government spending next month when the European Commission finalises its assessment of the country’s deficit and debt.

Spain and Portugal reduced their spending drastically last week when the EU said their spending was still too high and they were not reducing their deficits fast enough.

They are now going to halve their deficits to around 5% by next year following a mixture of tax increases and spending reductions such as pay and pension cuts and abolishing a new-baby bonus.