Mixed reaction from business community

THE supplementary budget was “savage and a missed opportunity” which will do nothing to stimulate enterprise or help keep people in jobs, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) charged yesterday.

However, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation’s (IBEC) director general Turlough O’Sullivan was more muted and said while everyone felt pain, the budget was a critically important step towards restoring our financial stability and international reputation.

The Government, in a paper entitled Macroeconomic and Fiscal Framework 2009-2013 accompanying the budget, conceded the budget will have a negative impact on economic growth: “It is estimated that the level of economic activity will be reduced by about 1 percentage point on foot of the supplementary budget.”