‘Lack of clarity over level of cuts’

THE coalition’s four-year budget plan will fail to convince investors, international markets and taxpayers that Ireland can recover as exact details of planned cuts have been substituted for headline totals which do not provide any real clarity, the opposition claims.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath made the comment after the Fine Gael-Labour government published its medium term fiscal statement report.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the Cork South Central TD said the plan did not provide any certainty for those who will be directly affected by the cutbacks and tax hikes due to take place between now and 2015.

He said while his party — which was in power when the economic crisis began — wanted to be “constructive” in opposition, he did not believe the plan will ease the concerns of recession sufferers.

“What people were really looking for from this document today was certainty and clarity as to how those plans will affect them.

“They will have wanted to see the Government’s plans on taxation, not just income tax but the household charge and changes to capital taxes, and how that is going to affect their daily lives... That level of detail is distinctly lacking in the document that was published.”

When asked if it should be expected that this information would not be made public before it is finalised in next month’s budget, as internal Government negotiations are still taking place, he disagreed.

“The details for 2012 will be in the budget, but people wanted to see some degree of certainty, how it will impact them beyond 2012 as well.

“If you compare today’s document to the National Recovery Plan published by the late Brian Lenihan last year, there is a marked difference in detail. That plan was over 140 pages and broken down by department for each year up to 2014.

“All we’ve got today are headline figures with no indication whatsoever as to how those figures are going to be arrived at.”

Mr McGrath said the predicted 65,000 new jobs by 2015 was “a long way short of the 100,000 jobs they [Government] were promising prior to the election”.

Sinn Féin finance spokes- person Pearse Doherty, said the coalition’s report was “anti-jobs and anti- growth”. “It is little more than Fianna Fáil policies repackaged, which begs the question — what was the point of the election if Fine Gael and Labour had no policies of their own to implement?” he asked.

Economic inequality group TASC said the plan was “the wrong road to recovery” as the “austerity strategy is shrinking the economy without significantly shrinking the deficit”.