Kenny to take pay cut as FG unveils Budget proposals

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said today he has asked the paymaster general to cut his wages by 5 per cent as he unveiled Budget proposals that include calls for a 12-month pay freeze for public sector workers.

Mr Kenny today outlined a list of “tough but fair” Budget proposals from his party.

These include a 12-month freeze on pay and increments for those earning more than €50,000 in the public sector, 5,000 voluntary redundancies in the civil service, a proposed fee level for banks using the Government guarantee of €1.5 billon and the introduction of an earnings cap of €125,000 for pension relief.

Commenting on the Fine Gael proposals, set out in a document called Recovery through Reform: A Budget Perspective,Mr Kenny said: "Nowhere in Europe is a Government facing so sharp a reversal of the public finances, so steep a rise in unemployment and so consistently expensive goods and services as we are.

“These domestic factors, driven by reckless Fianna Fáil budgets, magnify and amplify the problems we now face as a country in a way that no other country in Europe is experiencing.”

Mr Kenny called on Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to adopt his party’s policies. “In practice that means that he [the Minister] must be tough on the waste that has been allowed grow and multiply throughout Government and demand a 3 per cent reduction in the current budgets of 2008 for 2009."

He added that Fine Gael was proposing €1.8 billion in spending savings from the 2008 actual budget across all the Departments, excluding Social Welfare.

In calling for the 12-month pay freeze for those with salaries of €50,000 or more, Mr Kenny said: “It does not make sense to borrow more money to pay for pay increases that the economy cannot afford.”

Commenting on the proposals, Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton added: “The Budget next week will see if Fianna Fáil can break from their bad habits and bad policies that have left Ireland so badly exposed to the external downturn in the economy.

“To that end I want to see the capital programme maintained at its current level so that we are not undermining our scope for future growth. I also want to see Fianna Fáil’s decentralisation plan finally taken off the life support machine. This botched and crazy version of decentralisation is eating up valuable resources that could be better used elsewhere,” Mr Bruton continued.

Mr Bruton said today he would be following Mr Kenny's lead and asking for a pay cut.