Painful budgets essential, says Cowen

TAX hikes and spending cuts are essential for Ireland to keep control of its financial sovereignty, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has warned.

Mr Cowen said if Dublin was to continue to “manage its own affairs”, the public needed to accept the budget outlook for the next four years would be painful.

Mr Cowen said public finances were now €18.5 billion out of kilter and the only way to remedy that was through “growth in the economy, tax increases and expenditure cuts”.