Parties At Odds As Emergency Budget Announced For April

The leading parties in the Daíl are criticising each other after the announcement of an emergency budget for April.

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, told the Daíl today that an emergency budget will be unveiled in the first week of April in response to the continuing deterioration in the public finances.

The three leading parties have since come out in criticism of each others' approach to public finances.

This morning, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the new budget must slash public sector waste.

He said that the Government have to include a radical overhaul of the public sector and welcomed the fact that the Government had finally responded to Fine Gael's call for a new budget.

However, soon after the statement the Labour Affairs Minister Billy Kelleher accused Fine Gael of being in a state chaos over its announcements on public finances.

"This morning Enda Kenny gets up in the Dáil and welcomes the fact that there will be a supplementary Budget. Then Fine Gael frontbencher Alan Shatter rushes out a statement saying he has no confidence in Cowen’s April Budget," said Mr Kelleher.

He added: "Who is speaking for Fine Gael here? The party leader or Alan Shatter? Or is Alan Shatter trying to undermine Enda Kenny’s leadership of Fine Gael in the same fashion as he undermined John Bruton's?"

Yesterday, Mr Cowen accepted that "a combination of revenue raising and expenditure adjustments" would be needed following a further €2bn tax shortfall so far this year.

The Government had previously resisted calls for the introduction of a mini-budget to raise taxes.

Speaking in the Dail this morning, Mr Cowen said he and his colleagues would take whatever decisions were necessary to plug the hole in the public finances.

(DW/BMcC)