Siptu: Labour should pull out if budget cuts loom

Siptu president Jack O’Connor has said Labour should withdraw from Government if the public finances remain on their current trajectory and working people are still not protected from further cuts in the next budget.

He made the comments after giving a speech to trade unionists at the party’s leadership hustings.

During that speech, he claimed the only effective opposition to the austerity agenda had been “exerted by the Labour Party from within Government”.

However, he said the party had allowed the allegation it reneged on its pre-election promises “to go unchallenged to the degree that it has become virtually universally accepted as fact”.

Mr O’Connor said he had called on leadership candidates Joan Burton and Alex White to give an undertaking that, if they were elected and the public finances continued to recover, that they would not support further cuts.

“It is difficult to do at this point in time but if we continue to get the kind of monthly reports on the exchequer returns that we have been getting since the beginning of the year, then it will be possible to do a budget for 2015 that would not entail any cuts that would impact on working people,” he told RTÉ Radio.

He said the country was now running €1.22bn ahead of target. “If that emerges at the end of the year, we will have a deficit for this year of 4.1% as against the Government’s projected 4.8%.”

He said the Government should press ahead with the establishment of a Strategic Investment Banking corporation and an “off balance sheet” stimulus plan. He said both candidates went “a considerable distance of the way” towards a vow of no further cuts.

Asked if Labour should withdraw from Government if more cuts emerge, he said: “If the public finances remain on their current trajectory and if it is not possible to reach agreement on a budget that does not entail further pain for working people or the people who depend on public services, I am saying the Labour party should withdraw from the Government.”