The Green Party leader John Gormley has said it would be wrong to speculate on the overall savings being sought by the Government in the Budget.
Mr Gormley, the Minister for the Environment, was responding to comments made by the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith yesterday, in which he inadvertently divulged that the figure being sought was between €5 billion and €6 billion.
Mr Gormley said that Mr Smith himself had later clarified that no figures have been agreed by Government at this stage. The amount disclosed by him was considerably higher than the €4.5 billion figure stated by Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
Speaking at the launch of Senator Deirdre de Búrca’s campaign for the European Parliament, Mr Gormley said: “I have made it very clear that it is wrong at this stage to speculate. As soon as you give a figure people are out with their calculators and looking at the implications for those costings.”
Mr Gormley repeated that the country was at a crossroads and faced grave economic realities. However he insisted the Government would be prepared to take unpopular decisions for the common good.
He added that the Government would adhere to the commitment given to the European Commission that the State’s borrowing requirement would not exceed 9.5 per cent of the General Government Balance.
“We are sticking to the 9.5 per cent. There’s no question about that. We have already reneged in relation to the 3.5 per cent.
“We have to make courageous decisions in relation to expenditure cuts even if it is unpalatable and is not politically popular. We will deal with taxation measures as well.
His colleague, the Minister for Communications and Energy Eamon Ryan argued people should not become obsessed with any one figure be it a percentage or an amount of money.
“The key thing is that over the next four years we get this country through a very difficult economic situation,” he said.
“There are factors in our favour. The fact that interest rates are coming down is putting money back in people’s pockets. The fact that oil prices are down is putting money into the country. The fact that we are spending less may be difficult for tax revenues, but the fact is we are keeping money in the country. Our balance of payments is getting better and that is the way that we get through this problem.”
Senator de Búrca said that Dublin badly needed a Green MEP. “We had an MEP for 10 years, and I am absolutely determined to gain that seat. I am promising today to bring thousands of green new jobs to Dublin,” she said.
Questioned by reporters, Mr Gormley also repeated his view that the position of the Irish Nationwide Building Society’s chief executive Michael Fingleton was untenable, following the disclosure he had received a bonus of €1 million after the commencement of the State guarantee scheme.
Mr Gormley also said that the Green Party was working on finding a candidate to contest in the East constituency. “It’s an interesting constituency and as you know there are few enough candidates going forward at this stage. It would be a pity if there were three candidates for three positions. At this stage we are looking for a high calibre Green candidate,” he said.