‘We knew when we went into Government harsh choices lay ahead’

LABOUR knew when it went into government that harsh budgetary decisions lay ahead, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said after announcing €1.4 billion of cuts.

But he said the junior coalition party protected its pre-election commitments as best it could, despite breaking a promise on third-level fees and the children’s allowance.

Announcing cuts for 2012 in the first part of the two-day budget process, the minister said that “no government, whatever its numbers, wants to be the bearer of bad news” but its options were “extremely limited”.

The public recognises this, he told the Dáil and “is wary of those who offer simplistic options”.

At the start of the speech he paid tribute to the late Brian Lenihan, who was “the last minister to stand up here to announce the Government’s spending plans”.

The late finance minister’s “commitment to his country and the public interest should be acknowledged”.

Mr Howlin said that “fairness, jobs and reform” were the three “guiding principles” in deciding spending cuts for next year.

He said the adjustment needed could not be made “without touching sensitive policy areas” but called for a “social solidarity in the face of difficult times”.

Announcing cuts to the disability, fuel and back to school allowances as well as cuts to child benefit for families of more than two children, Mr Howlin said the Government had “a duty to protect the most vulnerable”.

The level of welfare spending could not be sustained, he said.

“As unpalatable as it might be, we must make some difficult choices.”

Increasing college fees by €250 a year was a “difficult decision”, he said, but promised allocations would be made to help people from lower-income families to go to university.

To a faint applause from some Fine Gael backbenchers and no clap at all from the Labour benches, the minister concluded that “as a country we have endured four years of hardship” but “with clear and determined leadership this nation will prosper again”.

At a press conference a short time later in Government Buildings, Mr Howlin refused to say which previously flagged cuts had been removed at the insistence of either his party of Fine Gael.

He said the Cabinet signed off on the decisions yesterday morning and the measures reflected both the Programme for Government. “By and large, the principles that underlie both parties in government are clear to people who voted for us.”

Mr Howlin said there was nothing in the cuts that he wanted on the agenda and that “as a Labour minister, I don’t want to be looking at reducing social spending”.

Asked on RTÉ Six One news if the Labour Party had betrayed its pre-election promises, Mr Howlin said: “We knew when we went into Government in a very difficult climate that harsh decisions were ahead of us.”

But he said: “We have protected the commitments we made as best we can.”

He also defended cutting the disability allowance from €188 to €100 a week for 18 to 21-year-olds, saying it would “allow people with disabilities to be fully integrated” in the jobs allowance and would prevent them from being “trapped” into welfare dependency.