Cowen: We could have ended up like Greece

IRELAND would have ended up like Greece and “lost our economic sovereignty” if the budget policies of the opposition had been adopted, the Taoiseach claimed.

Brian Cowen told the Dáil the European Union has not demanded the Government adopt harsher cuts than the €3 billion planned for December’s budget. “The strategy that the Government has been pursuing since July 2008 has been vindicated” by recent events in Greece, he said.

And saving measures will have to be “pursued vigorously” for the next number of years “or the markets will punish us severely.”