€2bn budget cut politically ‘impossible’

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council’s advice to stick to the €2bn budget adjustment next month is politically impossible, said Fine Gael TD, Bernard Durkan.

“I notice that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council seems to know better than we who are at the coalface”, said Mr Durkan, who was speaking alongside German parliamentarians at a conference organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

Mr Durkan said at the local and European elections in May, both Fine Gael and Labour, “got hammered because of the severe economic decisions we had to make”.