Taoiseach ‘not seeking confrontation’

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen insisted he does not seek confrontation with anyone in making difficult budget decisions which he hopes will be reached “with the greatest measure of agreement beforehand”.

Just a month ahead of what’s being flagged as the harshest budget in history, Mr Cowen made an assertion that anyone who claims he does things his way, rather than through agreement, does not know him. “The best way forward is an agreed way forward,” the Taoiseach said before last night’s meeting between the Government and unions on how to achieve a €1.3 billion cut in the public sector pay bill.

Mr Cowen was responding to claims by Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, that the Government prefers “having people rip each other apart” rather than “getting people to pull together”.

Mr Gilmore told the Dáil: “I’m quite concerned about the general mood of the country as we face into the budget.

“Many are angry about their own declining economic fortunes in addition to the declining economic fortunes of the country. We are hurtling headlong into a period of conflict, strife and considerable social division.”

Mr Gilmore said the Taoiseach should go down the route of co-operation to reach a national agreement rather than take the route of conflict and strife.

In what the Labour leader likened to a Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis speech, the Taoiseach responded: “No one is seeking confrontation. All of us are seeking to communicate the seriousness of the situation in which the country finds itself. Anger is not a policy and does not provide a panacea.”

Mr Cowen said during discussions with the social partners, his approach has been “to seek and obtain agreement”.

“Since my first Ministry, as Minister for Labour, I have sought progress by way of agreement. I also know it is ultimately the responsibility and duty of Government to make the decisions that we have to make. I would rather them to be made on an agreed format than on a non-agreed format,” he said.