Wholesale destruction of a generation of the middle class

ACCORDING to the latest Exchequer returns, from January 2008 through November 2011, Government spending, inclusive of the capital cuts, will contract by 6.6%.

The total net cuts in public expenditure achieved in the 11 months since January 1, 2010, amounted to just over €1.4 billion or a miserly 1.1% of GNP. At the same time, this year’s deficit, ex-banks, will add up to about 14.7% of the gross national output.

These figures put into perspective the Herculean task that is faced by the economy in terms of the deficit reductions that have to be achieved to restore our fiscal health. In this context, Budget 2011 is just a minor step on a long and arduous journey ahead of us.