Rabbitte wants an easing of austerity in the next Budget

HARD-pressed taxpayers should be given ‘breathing space’ in the next Budget, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said yesterday.

He is the latest Cabinet member to suggest to the Taoiseach that cuts and tax hikes due in this October’s Budget should be eased.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore last weekend asked that the public be spared the full burden of €3.1billion of cuts.

On Sunday Enda Kenny rejected the idea that the Government could ease austerity.

But speaking yesterday, Mr

‘Our citizens are badly in need’

Rabbitte said he believed the promissory note deal had granted the Government room for manoeuvre and added that he will be advising that it may not be necessary to implement €3.1billion worth of cuts.

He said: ‘There are some families who have been enduring a good deal of hardship since the crash happened five years ago.

‘The sheer longevity of the recession is very painful for some people and the fact that we are not getting the growth that we had planned because of t he r ecession t hroughout Europe is making it extremely difficult.

‘But the fact of the matter is that we have met all of the targets of the only lender prepared to loan us money. As a result of the renegotiation engaged in by t he Government with t he Troika, over recent times, including the promissory note, we do have some flexibility that would seem to suggest that we can meet our targets for next year without taking as much out of the economy as the €3.1billion that is in the public domain at the moment.’

Mr Rabbitte said that the promissory note deal offered the Government scope to potentially ease the scale of cuts and taxes in the Budget.

He remarked: ‘It does provide us with some breathing space, and I think our citizens are very badly i n need of breathing space.’

He added: ‘But at the end of the day the Government has to make this decision and all I am doing is saying to you what my advice will be to my Cabinet col- leagues. And that advice is that it won’t be necessary for us to take out €3.1billion, but it will be necessary for us to take prudent measures to ensure that we meet [our] targets.’

His comments expose the growing divide among Cabinet members over how severe the

‘I want to finish the job’

austerity measures should be and are in contrast with those of Mr Kenny who spoke last weekend of the need to stick to the proposed €3.1billion of cuts.

At the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, he said: ‘Hitting our agreed Budget targets is an absolute necessity if we are to successfully exit our bailout by the end of the year.

‘Failure to follow through on all the hard work and sacrifices of the Irish people now, so close to the bailout exit, jeopardises everything we have all worked for. We cannot allow this.

‘Ninety per cent of the fiscal consolidation is now complete. I want to finish the job, and finish it as quickly as possible so families everywhere can begin to plan for the future with confidence.’

While Mr Kenny acknowledged the public had already been burdened with a raft of cuts, he said the measures were still necessary. He added: ‘We are still adding €1billion a month on to the national debt to pay for public service salaries, social welfare and other services. This is not sustainable.

‘This Budget is an opportunity to take those last big steps required to get our national finances under control’.