Rabbitte Open To Examine Changes To Croke Park Agreement

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has said that there is merit in re-examining the terms of the Croke Park Agreement in the context of the upcoming Budget.

Minister Rabbitte, speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, said the financial situation of the country was such that the deal should be looked at to see if any extra elements could be included.

He said the government acknowledged that it must keep its part of the Croke Park Agreement, and said that the savings achieved had been better than planned.

However, Mr Rabbitte said that because of a number of reasons, such as the instability of the euro, Ireland still faced a difficult economic environment, and that the consumer and retail economy was very flat.

Adding that the government had a particularly difficult Budget to deliver in December.

“My own view is that if the Government were to decide to intrude new issues into the Croke Park discussions in the coming weeks I would support that," he said this morning.

"If you have agreement of the parties to sit down and in the national interest and look at the overall economic situation and where we are now and the fact that in order to be compliant with our targets- we have to bring in what will be a difficult budget in December – then if Government were to make that decision between now and then, I certainly would support that.”

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