Government ‘can no longer blame’ international forces

THE Government can no longer blame international factors for the economic downturn, the opposition claimed last night.

Both Fine Gael and Labour said the fuelling of the property market by successive Fianna Fáil-lead coalitions was responsible for the country officially entering recession.

They were responding to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday showing the country has had two successive quarters of negative economic growth, which is the official definition of recession.