FF-led Government is worst in 35 years, says Quinn

FORMER LABOUR leader and minister for finance Ruairí Quinn has claimed Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan give no sense that they have the first idea of how to tackle what he said was the worst crisis since the foundation of the State.

He has also portrayed the Fianna Fáil-led Government as the worst he has seen in his 35 years in national politics.

Mr Quinn, who was minister for finance between 1994 and 1997, claimed Mr Lenihan in particular was "out of his depth" in the role.

He said that each response the Minister has taken as the economic situation has worsened has been wrong or inadequate.

"The situation the Government finds itself in now is partly a result of its own incompetence. Bringing forward the Budget to October was a stunt then and is still a stunt now. There were no figures for tax returns, they were negotiating a pay deal and they had no real figures on which to calculate projections," he told The Irish Times.

He also said the framework for economic recovery, published before Christmas, was a "farce". There was an urgent need for the Dáil to be recalled to allow a comprehensive debate on the economy, he added.

Earlier, Mr Quinn told RTÉ that the situation facing the country was the worst since the Treaty.

He continued: "These are the worst figures that any minister for finance has presided over since the foundation of this independent Republic." He said it was necessary to recall the Dáil and then to introduce a budget in a number of weeks.

He also castigated the record of successive Fianna-Fáil led administrations and claimed they contributed to the crisis. "Ireland's economy has compounded its difficulty by the reckless budgetary arithmetic over the last four or five years, starting with minister [Charlie] McCreevy, continuing with minister [Brian] Cowen under the leadership of Bertie Ahern and now Brian Lenihan, who quite frankly is not up to the task at all."

Mr Quinn, who is Labour's spokesman on education, also sharply criticised the economic forecasting of the Government.

"We have had optimism and fairytales from this Government since last June. As recently as last September, Brian Cowen was saying to people like Joan Burton and Eamon Gilmore to stop being pessimistic, to get real. Every one of their forecasts has been proven to be correct."

Mr Quinn said scrapping the pay deal was now on the table as nothing was sacred any more. However, he said that he had little faith that the present Coalition could bring Ireland to a "safe place" within four to five years.

"It could get far worse. I have been saying this since the middle of July.

"We have a Government that is in total denial, that is so badly led, it is exhausted. They are a beaten team."