FG deficit reduction plan means higher taxes

TAX hikes will take up a much bigger slice of Fine Gael’s deficit reduction plan than expected, it emerged yesterday.

The party’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan said levies would take about a third of the €9bn fiscal correction package, rather than the previously stated one quarter share.

The move brings Fine Gael much closer to Labour’s position on tackling the economic crisis, but Mr Noonan said the change was due to drastically reduced growth levels estimated by the Central Bank since the budget.