The Opposition today accused the Government of sacrificing infrastructure and the health service to pay for the Special Saving Incentives Accounts (SSIAs) and loss-making national pension fund contributions.
In a Dáil debate on the Budget estimates, the Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said the National Development Plan, the Health Strategy and the Fianna Fáil election manifesto had been "shredded, and are as completely irrelevant as the comments being made by Government."
Labour Party leader Mr Pat Rabbitte asked which of the recent spending cuts embarrassed the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern most.
"Do you [Taoiseach] now accept that you and your Government lied to the people at the time of the General Election, or are you saying that you are lying to them now or are you saying you don't know the difference?"
Ms Joan Burton said Mr McCreevy had made the wrong choices, choosing the SSIA and tax cuts over infrastructure.
However the Taoiseach defended the cuts saying they were necessary for the Government to return to a sustainable rate of spending. He said the Government was endeavouring to not spend itself into a position where it created a long-term crisis.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy defended his Budget estimates and insisted spending for the year would be close to or on target.
He said controlling spending would be the responsibility of ministers. "Where ever a higher than anticipated spending begins to emerge, Ministers must respond quickly by putting in place measure to bring spending into line with the approved allocation."