Let's face it, it's either take the cuts or raise taxes to fund spending

"IT IS ALWAYS difficult to speak on a motion of no confidence when the motion relates to oneself and it is especially difficult for a man as modest as myself," Charlie McCreevy told the Dáil this week during the confidence debate on his stewardship as Minister for Finance. This was even before the publication of the Book of Estimates, which foreshadows the forthcoming budget.

If he was a new Minister for Finance, many people would really be lauding him for having the guts to take such a bold and necessary stand. But, of course, he is not a new minister. He has been there for over five years and he is the one who must bear the ultimate responsibility for the profligacy of his fellow ministers who recklessly sought to buy the last election. Not only that, they have given themselves handsome pay increases, and they are now calling on others to cut back. This is a lousy sense of leadership.

It is all uncomfortably reminiscent of when Charlie McCreevy first entered national politics in 1977, following Fianna Fáil's infamous giveaway manifesto of that year. He was the first of the politicians with the guts to denounce the auction politics in which all of the parties had been engaging. It was a great pity that he did not have the courage to outline the true situation before this year's general election.