'He is killing us': Fianna Fáil ministers despair of Jack 'Thatcher' Chambers' tight-fisted approach to budget

'I know what Jack wants, and that's to give us nothing,' said one Fianna Fáiler at the party's think-in

Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers speaking to the media at Fianna Fail's annual think-in at Tullamore Court Hotel in Tullamore, Co Offaly. 

As Fianna Fáil members settled themselves in ahead of the party's think-in in Tullamore, the colour from Jack Chambers' face suddenly drained.

While out for dinner, which for some led to drinks in local TD Tony McCormack's shebeen, one of his colleagues had joked the public expenditure minister was becoming "Jack Thatcher", in reference to the Iron Lady who got herself embroiled in a succession of high-stakes confrontations with unions.

Mr Chambers, ahead of what will be a tough budget, is also staring down the real threat of public sector protests.

On both fronts he remains resolute money will simply not be swashed around and handed out. He has stoked the unions with his insistence there will be no preconditions on public sector pay, before the sides engage in talks.

Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers have been told they must reign in spending in their departments and seek savings to fund any additional measures for next year.

On the fringes of the think-in at the Tullamore Court Hotel, ministers were grimacing when the word budget was raised.

One minister, who staged a walk-out after negotiations with Mr Chambers went nowhere last year, and "went upstairs" to party leader Micheál Martin with his demands, warned he expected to have to do the same this year, given the increasingly loud mood music coming from the public expenditure minister.

"A lot of us will be going upstairs this year," agreed another member of Cabinet.

The move towards a new approach where, as one minister put it "every line is being questioned", is not solely down to Mr Chambers, who has made it his mission to do away with supplementary estimates so departments remain within the funding allocations set down at budget time.

"Dper [Department of Public Expenditure officials] are pricks," a senior Cabinet source said, taking issue with the way in which funding issues in the Department of Education have been handled.

This time last year, education officials highlighted a €416m deficit, but were told the department would not be getting an enhanced budget allocation. The problem came to a head earlier this year when other departments were levied to plug that funding hole, which had ballooned to more than €650m.

There is a feeling that department officials view resources and spending purely through a financial prism and do not consider the human or even political implications of budget allocations.

But many in Fianna Fáil fear Mr Chambers has eagerly adopted this same approach, which will undoubtedly lead to sparky exchanges when ministers get in the room to fight for resources.

"I know what Jack wants, and that's to give us nothing," said one Fianna Fáiler.

"He is killing us," said another backbencher, who remarked not even his Cabinet colleagues could get extra cash for the usual requests.

Speaking after briefing his Fianna Fáil colleagues behind closed doors at the think-in, Mr Chambers told the media the party was "very cognisant of the geopolitical situation globally and the need to be prudent, responsible, and sustainable in how we manage the economy".

Mr Chambers added "There'll have to be trade-offs and priorities in Government around what we want to prioritise."

He put a positive spin on the need to "get more out of the existing base of spend", highlighting the importance of more sustainable economic management of the public finances, which will pay dividends in the medium to long term.

"I think what was welcomed across parliamentary colleagues is that there is a consensus in Fianna Fáil on making the case for reform, and to do that through the budgetary process and having a harder budgetary constraint is important to do that."

Privately, the grumblings around the budget battles ahead tell a different story.