Opposition warns of harsh times

The two major Opposition parties have claimed that the latest Exchequer figures show there will be dramatic cuts in spending in the remainder of 2002 to ensure the Government remains within budget.

Fine Gael and Labour claimed last night that the figures were further proof that the Government parties misled the public about the state of the public finances before May's election.

Fine Gael's finance spokesman Mr Richard Bruton said the figures showed the Government had overspent dramatically in key areas before the election, only to cut back substantially now.

He called on ministers to "explain how they gave assurances within three days of the election that there would no need for any cutbacks in order to live within the resources outlined in the Budget 2002.

"What was left to be spent this year would require a substantial real cut in spending," he said.

The Government had "chosen to paper over the emerging deficit in their budget by artificial means, such as pocketing the unclaimed money during the euro changeover period, raiding the social insurance fund, bringing forward corporate tax payments to provide a short-term boost to Revenue, and pocketing additional resources from the Central Bank," according to Mr Bruton.

Labour's finance spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin said the figures showed that cutbacks in the final quarter of the year "will be even harsher than those announced so far" if the Government is to meet its spending targets.

Mr Howlin said that, from experience, "we know that the first target of Minister McCreevy's knife will the public services on which those on low and middle incomes depend."

He said the figures showed up "continuing serious economic problems", which were "a direct result of the gross mismanagement of the economy by the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy during his five-year period in office".

Every set of economic figures produced by the Department of Finance "points to the grossly fraudulent nature of the election campaign conducted by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats".