McCreevy defends his record as minister and says he has no regrets

OUTGOING Irish EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy has staunchly defended his record as minister for finance from 1997 to 2004.

Mr McCreevy also said he had absolutely no regrets about his decentralisation policy or about the controversial funding of Punchestown racecourse.

Mr McCreevy, who finishes his term as Ireland's EU commissioner in January, was speaking on the RTÉ radio programme Miriam Meetswith his wife Noeleen McCreevy, his private secretary during his time as a TD and minister.

Asked if he was the “worst or best minister for finance”, he said “the figures are there to prove that the Irish economy had its greatest growth rates ever in that particular period of time”.

He acknowledged that “what happened with the property bubble is something that can be looked at” but it was mainly down to the low cost of finance and there were property bubbles in a number of other countries, he said.

Unemployment “reduced from over 10 per cent to 4 per cent. We had budget surpluses every year in that particular period of time.”

When it was put to him that he was a “PD at heart” he said “people can’t have it both ways”.

He was accused of increasing spending but “that wouldn’t be a PD core issue”, and “cutting taxes has proven to be a success in galvanising economies”.

He was “accused that tax changes favour the rich, but now all the people at the lower end are out of the tax net. But everyone including the socialists, said that was the proper policy to do that. We should relieve the burden at the lower end and that’s what happened.”

When it was pointed out that too much of the tax base was removed, with a resulting dependency on property taxes which then evaporated, Mr McCreevy said “I can’t be responsible for what’s gone on in the last six years”.

He added that “even if the economy retrenches for 2009 and 2010, it’s a damn sight far better place that it was even 15 or 20 years ago.

“People have to get things in perspective.”