Bruton: Recession a risk

BAD decisions taken by the Government in yesterday’s budget risked turning the country’s recession into a depression, Fine Gael warned.

Finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the tax hikes and cutbacks in capital investment announced would be self-defeating because they would discourage consumer confidence and enterprise.

“They will further depress consumer spending, raise the cost of living, cut into our competitiveness and undermine incentives for work, investment and entrepreneurship. It is the greatest job destruction budget in 25 years.” he said.

“Today’s €2bn in tax hikes and another €2bn in cutbacks in vital infrastructure programmes threaten to turn the current Irish recession into a sustained depression,” he added.

Mr Bruton said the Government was “in denial” about its own role in the downfall of the country’s finances.

“Like our parents before us, another generation are now being forced to mortgage their children’s future to pay for the waste and extravagance of a Fianna Fáil Government,” he said.

Labour’s finance spokeswoman Joan Burton echoed the theme, saying despite persistent Government claims that the domestic difficulties were the result of the global crisis, they were due to “bad ministerial judgement, not international events“.

Ms Burton said middle class and PAYE families were “mugged” in the Budget.

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Arthur Morgan, said the budget lacked leadership. “Today people wanted to see the beginning of a three year plan to get the economy back on track. Central to that is creating and retaining jobs and addressing the shortfall in public finances. The Government fell far short on both counts today,” he said.