Howlin: Childcare, pensions key issues at economic forum

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said childcare and pensions were among the key "pressure points" that had emerged at the National Economic Dialogue as needing to be addressed in the budget.

Mr Howlin said he had "learned a lot" during the sessions. He said the process had not only been useful for Budget 2016 but would inform Labour and Fine Gael manifestos in future.

“Obviously we can’t afford to address all the demands or the requests or the analysis presented. But we need to have a long-term view as to how we’re going to address many of them,” he said.

Mr Howlin said the interest groups involved would have another opportunity to make their case to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and himself in September.

“This was a new departure. Instead of listening in isolation to people who have a focus, but not a broad focus, that we’d have everybody in the room so that everybody would understand the competing demands and be able to argue their case in that context.

“Because most people who have a case to make believe that it trumps everybody else’s. But if everybody’s in the room there has to be an ultimate decision made.”

Mr Howlin said themes had emerged in certain areas that needed to be addressed, “and I certainly am going to do my homework in relation to that in the context of the budget”.

Asked if childcare and pensions were among the key themes, he said they were two of the issues.