BUDGET 2016: Enda Kenny: Budget a ‘fork in the road’

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton have insisted Budget 2016 offers Ireland a “fork in the road”, by replacing the era of boom and bust with an “affordable and sensible” recovery that allows the country to “breath again”.

The two leaders issued the staunch defence of their policies, despite opposition claims Tuesday’s €1.5bn tax cuts and benefit hikes are solely focussed on buying the general election.

Speaking during a detailed Dáil debate on the Coalition’s final budget before the election, Mr Kenny said Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s document is “another step” towards a sustainable recovery.

While saying “there is no denying the country still faces many challenges”, he said efforts of the Irish people “have made it possible for Ireland” to recover over the past four years.

The Taoiseach said budget 2016 is “affordable and sensible” and offers the public “a fork in the road”, with one sign “pointing to continued stability and certainty”, signalling “an end of the boom-and-bust approach of previous governments”.

The comments came as Health Minister Leo Varadkar described ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s criticism of the budget for being too generous as “total tripe”.

Tánaiste Joan Burton said that, as a result of the budget, “the opportunity we now have is a recovery in a sustained way”.

The Labour leader said people need to be clear that the country is “moving steadily in the right direction” and away from the “Fianna Fáil wrecking ball” crashing through society.

She noted it was the second time the USC was cut in a budget, and stressed the “biggest gains are being made by the bottom 30% and smallest gains by the top 10%”, while stressing the public “deserves immense credit” for the recovery.

Ms Burton said the financial plan is a “pro-work budget” and shows the Government is “investing in our future and Ireland’s potential” with extra teachers.

Despite criticism from the opposition over the scale of the money being handed out, the Tánaiste said “this budget is firmly based in actually having the structure of the EU treaties” and she accused Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin of being “like a fairytale where you went to the old woman’s house and the cupboard [the opposition parties’ alternatives] was bare”.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has accused the Government of standing over a “socially delinquent” budget that does little for the poor and ignores the fact “the emergency is not over”.

The party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said that, despite the Fine Gael-Labour Government taking office in 2011 “with a huge mandate for change, as citizens have learned to their cost, nothing has changed”.

She said Budget 2016 is “entirely” focussed on the “short term” and “mimics exactly the boom-bust” Celtic Tiger approach, adding the financial plan is “as brazen in playing for the electorate”.

After noting concerns over 1,500 children being in emergency housing, rents rising by 35% since 2011, the health crisis and other scandals, Ms McDonald said Government should be “shamed” by what it has prioritised, adding it is simply not possible to deliver on the countless promises.

She said the Coalition’s budget is “perpetuating a lie that it is possible to reduce tax take while maintaining front-line services”.