Chambers Ireland: Government failure will impact on rest of economy

Chambers Ireland says the failure of the government to tackle public sector allowances will have a knock-on effect in other areas of the economy.

Yesterday, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin confirmed that the government would not meet its own target of €75m in allowance savings this year.

Fianna Fáil has described it as "a stunning example of the government's litany of broken promises", while Sinn Féin is calling for a full list of public service allowances to be made public and debated.

Deputy Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland Sean Murphy says other sectors will be hit in December's budget as a result.

"The sad reality is by not making these savings, there will be knock-on effects elsewhere in our economy.

"We, as representatives of our Chambers, are very concerned by, particularly, proposals from the Department of Social Protection that effectively want to transfer the costs from their balance sheet on to employers, who are desperately trying to keep the lights on.

"The point is, there is an absolute and definite impact on the wider economy elsewhere."