Cowen: No group exempt from Budget pain

No group is exempt from painful cuts in the upcoming Budget, the Taoiseach warned today.

Brian Cowen said all public spending would be scrutinised to help solve the current economic crisis.

But he insisted the vulnerable would be protected as much as possible when the Budget is unveiled in December.

“These adjustments must not only be effective, they must be fair in the allocation of the burden,” Mr Cowen told the Fianna Fail Wolfe Tone Commemoration in Bodenstown, Co Kildare.

“All areas of public expenditure have to be looked at.

“Otherwise those who depend on public services would be asked to take too large a burden of the adjustment that is necessary at this time.”

Mr Cowen said the country’s sovereignty was at threat if financial stability could not be secured.

“The biggest challenge is in front of us: framing and passing the upcoming Budget,” he added.

“Put simply, it is a vital step to our future survival and recovery.”

The Taoiseach also attacked dissident republicans during his speech at the annual party event.

“Once more, this week, they have used violence and the threat of violence against the people of this island,” he said.

“These people are sometimes called dissident republicans, but they are no such thing.

“They are evil murderers whose actions and objectives could not be further removed from the republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.”