Gilmore ‘confident’ no more backbenchers will revolt
Patrick Nulty, who won the Dublin West by-election in October and is the party’s newest TD, called on the Government to hike taxes on high-income earners in the budget so as to avoid measures that would hurt those on low and average pay.
Mr Nulty also warned that Tommy Broughan’s revolt should be “taken very seriously” by Mr Gilmore.
Mr Broughan was expelled from the Labour parliamentary party on Thursday after voting against the Government decision to extend the bank guarantee scheme.
Speaking following his expulsion, Mr Broughan criticised the planned budget cuts and urged other Labour TDs to follow him out of coalition with Fine Gael.
Mr Broughan was the second Labour TD to lose the party whip, after former housing minister Willie Penrose resigned from the parliamentary party last month in protest at the Cabinet decision to close an army barracks in his constituency.
But while Mr Nulty claimed Mr Broughan’s stance should be heeded, Mr Gilmore said he did not expect any other backbenchers to break ranks: “I have no reason to believe that anybody else would follow suit,” he said.
The internal divisions in Labour came as Exchequer figures dealt another blow to the Government, showing that the tax take for the first 11 months of the year fell half a billion euro below target.
By November end, €31.8 billion had been collected in tax, €520m less than expected.
One of the major shortfalls was in VAT, which was €464m, or 4.6% below target — a sign that consumers are still reluctant to spend.
Elsewhere, the figures showed the budget deficit had widened to €21.4bn by the end of November compared with €13.3bn this time last year.
The department has attributed the deficit increase to the cost of bailing out the banks, including €7.5bn in once-off recapitalisation payments in July, and €3.1bn in promissory note payments for Anglo and Irish Nationwide.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
