Government cost-cutting plan weakened by lack of detail

FINE GAEL accused the Government of overselling its cost-cutting plans, warning they would not achieve the savings claimed.

Finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the lack of detail in the plan made him fear that the areas the Government pledged not to touch — education, health and capital building programmes — would end up being sacrificed.

He said Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan appeared “dazed and confused” and had presented a “cobbled together response to their self-generated recession”.