Gilmore criticises senior banker's 'call for pain'

A SENIOR banker's remarks on the economy were sharply attacked by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore.

He claimed the best expression of the Government's philosophy had come not from any Minister but from the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, Seán Fitzpatrick.

"Safely protected from the consequences of his failures by Government guarantee, and having pocketed the biggest welfare cheque ever written, he was prominent in his call for pain,'' said Mr Gilmore.

"Let us, he said, cut medical cards and child benefit. Mr Fitzpatrick's world is the reverse of the Titanic - in his world it's women and children last, while bankers get the first and most comfortable lifeboat.''

Mr Fitzpatrick's world, he said, was also the world of Fianna Fáil, the PDs and the Greens.

"Well, children and old people did come last in this Budget,'' Mr Gilmore added.

Speaking during the resumed Budget debate, he said class sizes were getting bigger, the number of language-support teachers was being cut, the programme for young people at risk of early school-leaving was being cut, in-service development was being cut and school transport charges were being increased.

Mr Fitzpatrick, he added, would be "one happy banker'' with what had happened to the elderly.

"Pensions will increase by a mere €7. And medical cards have been removed from the over-70s.

"Rather than confront the vested interests in the medical profession, who made the scheme so expensive, the Government has targeted the over-70s.''

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Budget was "disgraceful in what it contained and deplorable in what it did not contain''.

Never before had he seen such a universal rejection of a budget. One by one, the statements came out, with Ibec, Isme, Ictu, Siptu, Aer Lingus, Ryanair, hospital personnel, the Irish Hotels Federation, Focus Ireland and Barnardos criticising the Budget.

One single, solitary agency welcomed the Budget and that was the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). The Government fell asleep in a comfort zone and became immune to the realities of what was happening in the street.

"It ignored the warning signs that were put up in flares for long enough on a range of issues. The Government has been too lazy, too stale, too arrogant, too out of touch with the pressured lives of the mortgaged poor.''

Mr Kenny urged the Taoiseach to try meeting some of the people who were now impoverished, whose standard of living would drop, who were being punished.

"He should try telling these exhausted men and women about the patriotic action they are taking today in paying for the Government's outrageous and reckless mistakes.

"I can promise the Taoiseach if he does this he will get a short, two-word answer from them.

"It is very easy for a Government that stopped listening to reality a long time ago to talk about patriotism.

"However, if it matches its high-flown words to the real world outside this House it will quickly find that brand of patriotism rejected with heavy losses. The people know how badly they have been served.''

Mr Kenny said the Government had turned a surplus of €6 billion into a €15 billion deficit.

"For the first time in the history of the State they have reversed progress and condemned hard working people and families to lower living standards than their parents and, in some cases, their grandparents enjoyed.''