McGrath: Time to give people a break

Fianna Fáil is calling on the Government to ease the planned €3.1bn in spending cuts and tax hikes in next year's Budget.

The party, which is holding its Ard Fheis in Dublin this weekend, said the Coalition must ease the adjustments and invest in the economy instead.

Fianna Fáil said it accepts responsibility for the mistakes it made in office and it said Fine Gael and Labour must now accept their responsibility in power.

The party's Finance spokesperson, Michael McGrath, said austerity alone will not solve the crisis and that the mortgage arrears issue must be addressed.

He said: "Fianna Fáil believes that in this October's budget, the Governmnet must ease the planned adjustment and invest in the economy. It is time to give people a break.

"If Ireland is to recvover, we simply have to deal with the mortgage arrears crisis.

"This is a real national emergency and it must be tackled responsibly and imaginatively."

The party is also accusing the Justice Minister Alan Shatter of an "unprecedented attack" on the morale of Gardaí.

They said Mr Shatter is also "steadily eroding" the capacity of the forceand using Croke Park 2 as an excuse to break his promise to resume Garda recruitment.

The party also said people are now genuinely afraid and do not feel secure in their own homes.

Deputy Niall Collins is the Fianna Fail spokesperson on Justice.