Kenny: Budget shirked biggest challenge — public sector reform
He said Finance Minister Brian Cowen had shirked the “biggest challenge” facing the State — reforming the public service and delivering better value for money.
“The biggest challenge facing Ireland stems from government ministers presiding over vital areas of the public sector with massively inflated budgets which are not delivering results at the front line,” Mr Kenny told the Dáil.
“But this is a Government that has spurned every opportunity for public-sector reform and for achieving greater value for money.”
He said typical of this was the Government’s plan for “huge pay increases with no matching performance improvement”.
As a result of its failure to keep public spending to sensible levels, the Government had presided over the worst deterioration in exchequer finances in the State’s history, Mr Kenny said, turning a €2.3 billion surplus last year to a borrowing requirement of €4.9bn next year.
“Minister Cowen [on Wednesday] blamed difficult global economic conditions for the fiscal mess that he is now presiding over. But it was this Government’s sloppy management of the public finances and its reckless cheerleading of an unsustainable and debt-driven housing boom that left the Irish public finances dangerously exposed to a domestic property downturn,” Mr Kenny said.
Regarding Mr Cowen’s latest U-turn on stamp duty, he said: “I can only sympathise with the agony and humiliation that this Minister for Finance must be feeling in being overruled not once, but twice, within the space of nine months in such a crucial area of tax policy.”
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it was “a stunning admission of incompetence” by the minister that he revisited stamp duty so quickly.
Mr Gilmore said the budget as a whole represented “a monumental breach of the promises made by Fianna Fáil” prior to the election. He said among the promises not delivered were:
* 4,000 extra teachers
* 2,000 more gardaí
* 2,000 extra hospital consultants.
On health, the Government had delivered “more stealth taxes” rather than real service improvements, said Mr Gilmore.
The social welfare package was “minimal”, the Labour leader added.
“What can a person on the lowest rate of social welfare buy for €12 per week?” he asked. “What can a family on a low income buy with a child benefit increase of €1.43 per week — barely the price of a loaf of bread?”
But the Taoiseach insisted that the budget was “socially caring” and “progressive”.
“This is a budget that will sustain progress through more difficult international conditions. Our ability to produce an innovative, progressive and socially caring budget at this time reflects well on the strength and resilience of our economy which we have built up over many years.”
