Kenny calls for external verification of figures

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has demanded independent verification of the Government’s figures on the economy.

Addressing Brian Cowen in the Dáil yesterday, he said: “This cannot go on, Taoiseach. We have lost trust in you, in your Government and in the ability to tell us the truth.” Mr Kenny said “independent competent people must be brought in . . . who can validate and verify the figures given to us by the Department of Finance”.

Mr Kenny said Fine Gael would play its part in responding to the national crisis and produce a response to it. “We will do not do so on the basis of what you tell us, not any more,” he added.

“Every figure produced by the Department of Finance and by the Government has been wrong.” Mr Kenny said to say the figures produced by the Government on Monday were “outrageous” was an understatement.

They were “absolutely appalling” and they showed that from the very beginning of the banking crisis, Mr Cowen knew the situation was far worse than the Irish people were told.

“Not only was the economy being destroyed by the Government, but the fact is that it was wilfully concealing the truth of the extent of that destruction from the Irish people in what amounts to a national catastrophe,” he added.

Mr Kenny said the discussions had to be conducted in the Dáil chamber because the people had to be consulted and know what was happening.

Mr Cowen said the “tone and content” of Mr Kenny’s remarks was “unfortunate”, adding that they took away from the responsible approach everyone had taken to the situation facing the country.

“I am not going to reciprocate in the same way. I am just not going to do so, although I would have good reason to do so,” he added.

Mr Cowen said the consolidation in the public finances had been going on since the summer of 2008 when the issue first arose.

As a result of Government policies, which had not won unanimous favour in the House, there was €7.5 billion less in spending and taxation than would otherwise have been the case, he said.

He said he would welcome a Dáil debate on the issue.

Mr Kenny said Fianna Fáil had never wanted to be in the Dáil to the extent that it should be and answer questions.

Fine Gael, he added, would support what it believed in and oppose what it did not believe in.

He asked why the Government had closed down the Dáil for three months last summer when it could have introduced an emergency budget to stabilise the situation.

There had been a “fundamental breach of trust”, he said, because every figure the Government had provided was wrong.

Mr Cowen said the Fine Gael leader should move from “rhetoric to reality”, adding that it did not add to the debate “one whit”to claim that the Department of Finance had given anything other than a full independent assessment of the situation.

Forecasting, he said, had to involve certain assumptions. The growth forecast for the European and world economies and, by extension, the Irish economy, had to be modified somewhat.