Ministers anxious over cuts to budgets

There is fear and loathing among Cabinet ministers over where required budget cuts will be inflicted to pay for increased public sector pay, the Irish Examiner can reveal. There is no remaining fiscal space for next year and October’s budget will see no new measures included in it, ministers have warned.

The expressions of concern from within the Cabinet come as Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe warned his ministerial colleagues that the €120m cost of bringing forward public sector pay increases will have to be delivered by savings.

“When Paschal came to the Cabinet last week, and said he had done the €120m deal, there was a collective gasp. Then when he said it will have to be done through efficiencies through the year, people gasped further,” one minister told the Irish Examiner. The minister said that the spending review is not about identifying new projects but more to figure out what priority items ministers don’t want cut.