€3 Billion Cuts 'Minimum'

December's budget could be even more austere than expected after the Finance Minister signalled the coming cuts would be higher than €3 billion.

Speaking as he arrived at Fianna Fáil's two-day parliamentary party meeting in Galway, Brian Lenihan said the mooted €3billion in cuts was a "minimum" figure, and that heavier cuts were to come.

“The figure of €3 billion is a minimum, but clearly Government will have to go through the different departments,” Mr Lenihan said, before adding: “We have to look at what can be saved and what the correct position is.”

This morning, Opposition party Fine Gael criticised the Government's cuts, with Communications Spokesman Leo Varadkar saying Ireland’s "economic ship" was being "steered towards the cliffs of economic ruin".

Mr Varadkar's comments came on the back of an RTE 'Freefall' programme, during which the Taoiseach is said to claim he believed it was not the responsibility of Government to manage an overheated property market, while showing Bertie Ahern say he didn’t know the extent of the problems in the banking system.

“It is shocking to hear a former Taoiseach state that the reason he was unaware of the impending financial explosion in the banks was because the then financial regulator did not seek a meeting to discuss the issue," Mr Varadkar said.

He added: "What prevented the Taoiseach of the country from demanding to see the regulator? The truth is that light touch regulation was Government policy, and if there was bad news to be communicated, Bertie Ahern and current Taoiseach Brian Cowen didn’t want to hear it."

Mr Varadkar went on to call for both Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan to appear before public bank inquiry committee to explain their economic plan in full.

“Iceland’s Prime Minister and three of his cabinet colleagues who were in charge at the time of their financial cataclysm may yet face court proceedings, having been referred to Iceland’s specially established High Court by a parliamentary commission," he said.

(DW/KMcA)