Cowen admits Government may have to borrow more

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen conceded the Government may have to borrow more this year than it had planned.

The admission came just weeks after Mr Cowen insisted he would not allow borrowing to exceed 9.5% of gross domestic product in 2009. Responding to opposition questions in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Cowen said the Government would seek to be “as close as possible” to the 9.5% limit rather than staying within it.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and his Labour counterpart Eamon Gilmore had pushed Mr Cowen to clarify exactly how bad the public finances were.