Cowen declines to give exact date for four-year plan

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen declined to give a firm date about when the Government would publish its four-year budgetary plan. “I said here before that I was hoping it might be available for publication, assuming approval will be given, at the beginning of next week,” he told the Dáil.

“However, I cannot anticipate the outcome of discussions at Cabinet that must take place.”

Mr Cowen said: “We are working to an indicative schedule and we are doing the best we can. Obviously, the plans have to be finalised. There has been much budgetary debate, which I facilitated, to get to a position where we can discuss the four-year plan in detail.

“That has taken somewhat more time than expected, but much progress has been made.”

A number of TDs asked about the publication date of the Government’s plan to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by 2014. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny referred to reports that the fiscal plan would be published next Tuesday and asked for confirmation.

Mr Cowen said: “As soon as the fiscal policy plan is approved by the Government, it will be published. It is at an advanced stage of preparation and the Government has still to discuss, finalise and approve it. We will do that as soon as it is possible.”

Later, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore returned to the issue and asked whether Mr Cowen’s reply to Mr Kenny meant “it will be published earlier than next week”. He said that “reports this morning suggested the Government would bring forward its publication date to earlier than recently stated”.

Mr Cowen told him: “What I am trying to outline to the House in a straightforward and honest fashion is that the plan is being prepared and finalised. It has to be discussed and approved by the Government. I facilitated much discussion about budgetary issues already and much progress has been made in this area.

“However, the four-year plan has further issues and policies that need to be addressed. I hope this will begin soon and be concluded as soon as possible thereafter.

“The plan will be published when it is finalised and approved by the Government,” the Taoiseach added. “We indicated an indicative timetable of around mid-November. We are at that point, but we are not ready to publish it because we have not yet finalised, discussed and approved it. We are working on it as a matter of priority.”