REACTION:THE TAOISEACH and Minister for Finance appeared "dazed and confused" in their presentation of new financial measures and there was "no evidence of a clearly thought-out plan", Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said yesterday.
Mr Bruton described the measures announced in Government Buildings as a "cobbled-together response to their self-generated recession".
"Today must rank as one of the weakest and most uncertain performances from a Taoiseach and Minister for Finance in recent years. There was no evidence of a clearly thought-out plan, no detail provided on where the cost savings being proposed were going to come from and no answers on how frontline services were going to be safeguarded . . . his package does not represent a credible medium-term strategy to address the serious economic challenges that we now face.
"Besides lacking a credible strategy to reform our public finances, the Government has remained entirely silent on how it might help to tackle the deep-seated problem of lost competitiveness that is threatening many jobs across the country."
Mr Bruton added: "While we welcome the adoption of some of the proposed Fine Gael policies, it is notable that they have only been taken up on a half-hearted basis. The ministerial pay award has been deferred, not dropped. Action is proposed on agencies and quangos, but with no idea of what might actually be saved."
Labour's Joan Burton said: "This belated response completely misses the point: 54,000 have lost their jobs over the past year, 2,000 jobs are now being lost every week and the only response the Government can come up with is to get rid of more jobs in the public sector."
She continued: "The Government has proposed that the public sector payroll bill be cut by 3 per cent by the end of 2009 . . . while finding efficiencies and enhancing work practices will cover some element of this, we will inevitably be looking at job cuts in the public sector" .
Sinn Féin's Arthur Morgan said: "We welcome Government efforts to address wastage and inefficiencies in public spending. However,this approach should be par for the course in managing the public purse, not the exception due to economic decline.
"The document is vague on how targets will be achieved and what services and staffing will bear the brunt of cost reductions. There is mounting evidence across many services including health and education of cuts." Serious cuts would be introduced in December's budget, he added.
Trade unions warned the cutbacks could damage public services and particularly affect older people and those with mental illness and disabilities. However employers welcomed the moves to curtail expenditure and said further action would be required.
The country's largest public sector union Impact said a €38 million budget cut for "new developments" meant that planned service expansions in areas like disability, mental health and care for the elderly had been put on ice.
Ibec director general Turlough O'Sullivan said: "The initial savings targets for 2008 and 2009 are a good starting point and at the very least should avoid the need to break the limits of the Stability and Growth Pact."