Government borrowing heading way off target

The statement by Minister Michael Noonan that the Exchequer figures for the first three months were on target, is pure hogwash.

Incredibly, the current account deficit increased by 18% from €4.1bn to €4.9bn over the same period last year (www.finance.gov.ie). If this continues we will need borrowings of €20bn to cover day-to-day Government overspending by year end.

Unless the Government takes the hard decisions to bring public sector and welfare costs back to European norms we have no hope of balancing the budget. I would ask Minister Noonan to face the facts.