MacSharry urges FF and FG to seek agreement

POLITICAL MOVES:FORMER MINISTER for finance and EU commissioner Ray MacSharry has suggested that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should be considering a common assessment of what needs to be done to sort out the economy.

He noted about two-thirds of the electorate usually voted for the two parties of the centre, who shared a common approach to the economy.

“The problem is you then get coalitions involving one of the bigger parties, tilted towards the right as with the PDs, or towards the left with Labour even though the bulk of the people favour the centre,” he said yesterday.

Mr MacSharry said the Croke Park agreement between the Government and the unions would have to be revised, as it had been overtaken by subsequent events.

“We did not have the full information we have now when Croke Park was signed. We need an agreement on a four-year budgetary profile and we cannot afford any delay,” said Mr MacSharry, who added that agreement between the political parties was also part of the equation.

All quangos should be examined as quickly as possible to see how their functions should be transferred back to the relevant Government departments, he said.

Numbers working in the public service would have to be reduced through a voluntary redundancy system, Mr MacSharry added.