Noonan: All cuts on the table for budget

Government ministers are refusing to rule out the possibility that Budget 2013 will include the raft of social welfare cuts suggested by the IMF in its latest review of the country’s bailout programme.

The IMF report published on Wednesday recommended that the Government needed to look at means-testing for child benefit payments, taking away the automatic right to medical cards over the age of 70, and lowering social welfare entitlements.

Michael Noonan, the finance minister, responded: “It is important to note that the IMF’s article 4 review is different to the work of the troika. It is overall advice and we always look at advice. But the programme for government has not changed. Everything else is on the table apart from what is in the programme for government.”