Tánaiste 'unhappy' at leaking of document

A MINI-budget in 2012 will not be necessary, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted, as he acknowledged being “unhappy” at the leaking of a European Commission document on Ireland to the finance committee of the German parliament.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday accused him of being “ineffective” because it was the second episode of German parliamentarians seeing documents on the Irish economy before the Dáil did.

Mr Gilmore told the Dáil the leak had been raised with the German finance minister and the commission. He intended to pursue the matter himself and “discuss it with our Ambassador in Berlin and to ensure the way in which this document was handled is not repeated”.

Ms McDonald told the Tánaiste that the last time the Bundestag discussed the economy before Ireland did, “you told us equally you would pursue the matter vigorously. If there was ever an example of your ineffectiveness and your failure, it surely resides in the fact that we now have episode two of exactly the same scenario.”

In November, the German finance committee discussed details of the budget, including the 2 per cent VAT rise, before the budget was announced.

Mr Gilmore described the information released in Germany as a “staff document”. The document states a slowdown among Ireland’s trading partners could require further “fiscal tightening”. Ms McDonald said it suggested “the Irish State may require a mini-budget in 2012”.

Mr Gilmore insisted a mini-budget was not necessary and he highlighted the document’s positive comments. Ireland’s general deficit was estimated at well below programme targets and “recapitalisation of the domestic banks has been substantially completed”.

Independent TD Shane Ross said the point about the “embarrassing leaks” was that economic policy and the “policy of austerity was dictated and decided and revealed elsewhere”.

For the technical group, Mr Ross said the Taoiseach was in a unique position in Brussels to turn the referendum on the revised fiscal compact treaty into a “positive”.

He said Enda Kenny should tell other EU leaders that the Irish people would respond better to the referendum if there were no more leaks to the Bundestag “and if the Anglo promissory notes come into the equation”.

The Dublin South TD called for the Tánaiste to embark on a “diplomatic offensive” to tell the EU that Irish people would look much more benignly on the referendum if the EU was prepared to “look more benignly on our debt and were prepared to give us a credit write-off”.

He replied: “We are not going to trade the constitutional rights of the Irish people with anybody or for anything.”

Mr Ross retorted that the Minister for Social Protection had stated in an interview in the Financial Times that the EU should cut the cost of Ireland’s bailout to help it pass the euro zone fiscal pact in a high-stakes referendum.

Mr Gilmore said Joan Burton had made it “very clear” in her interview that “negotiations on the treaty and the holding of the referendum are not linked”.