Cowen: No area of public spending immune from cuts

The Taoiseach warned today no area of public expenditure was immune from feeling the snip of a €5.3bn cost-cutting masterplan.

Brian Cowen said the range of measures listed in a controversial report indicate the scale of the challenge that faces the country as a whole.

He appealed for everybody to critically and carefully read the report and to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.

But Mr Cowen maintained while Government would listen to the views of people, he stressed it would not be about people defending their individual patch.

“The scale of the issues are such that no area of expenditure is immune from consideration,” he said.

“We have seen a lot of improvements, and quite rightly so, in a range of social policy areas down the years. But you can’t begin this process, given the scale of the process we face, by starting to suggest various parts of expenditure can’t be considered for review or for adjustment.

“You have to look at everything.”

Proposals in the 300-page An Bord Snip Nua report include slashing social welfare payments and making cuts in healthcare and education.

The number of Garda stations around the country should be halved and transport for special needs children could be means-tested, it stated.

Economists believed at least 17,300 public sector workers must be laid off, which has already prompted threats of strike action.

Mr Cowen said job cuts would have to be considered as part of the cost-cutting programme.

“One of the ways of controlling public services’ pay and pension is through the numbers who are employed, and that is a method that has been adopted in the past as we try to deal with the current situation,” he said.

“This is something that’s looked at in the context of next year’s budget, that’s what it was outlined as.

“The question of how we organise Government to deliver services is a matter for government decision in due course.”

Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv refused to comment on the report’s suggestion his Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs be shut down.

He said the report was a menu of options which the Government would pick from.

“There’s a lot of very radical proposals in the report, not only affecting my department but all departments,” said Mr Ó Cuiv.

“But what we will do is look at the report as a totality.

“No decisions have been made and each item has to be examined to see would it be a good idea or not, and I’m not going to comment on any particular items,” he added.