Austerity programme could destroy economy, warns Begg

A CONTINUATION of the Government’s current “austerity programme” could destroy the Irish economy and kill off any prospects of recovery, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has warned.

Speaking at the launch of the ICTU’s pre-budget submission, David Begg said austerity had delivered nothing but higher unemployment and a bigger deficit.

“We have tried austerity and it just hasn’t worked — it has just made matters worse,” he said. “There have been three deflationary budgets that have taken €14.5 billion out of the economy and the result is clear: unemployment has almost trebled, the deficit is actually bigger than when we started and the cost of borrowing is at record levels. How could that be interpreted as anything other than failure?