Noonan protested strongly to Rehn at release of budget papers, says Kenny

MINISTER FOR Finance Michael Noonan has “protested very strongly” to EU economic and financial affairs commissioner Olli Rehn over the disclosure of budget documents in Germany, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil.

He said the European Commission had acknowledged it should not have sent the material to Germany’s finance committee, and “it has admitted its fault in that”.

He said he had placed the documents revealed in the Oireachtas library, which makes them available to TDs and Senators.

They reveal a number of budgetary proposals including the Government’s plan to raise the VAT rate by 2 per cent to 23 per cent, the introduction of a €100 household charge and an intention to reform capital gains tax.

Mr Kenny stressed: “The Minister for Finance has protested very strongly about a breach of confidentiality to Commissioner Rehn in that regard. The material was sent in confidence because of the proximity of the budget.”

Opposition leaders had protested at the public release of documents in Germany before the Dáil received them and called on the Government to confirm budget proposals to the House since they were also discussed within the Fine Gael and Labour parliamentary party meetings. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said it was “unprecedented that documentation would go to German parliamentarians before Irish ones”.

He did not have any problem “once we get the documentation first”.

The Taoiseach said that because the budget was so close, the commission “sought information about the intentions of the Minister for Finance in this regard, and that was sent to the commission in confidence. It has admitted it should not have sent that to the German parliament’s budget committee.”

The commission was “duty bound” to send the assessment for the preceding three months of Ireland’s quarterly bailout reports to Germany “because it is now inserted into the German constitution that it must be so informed”.

“However, it was not bound to send the information about the general intentions of the Minister for Finance about our budget, which is our business here.”

Mr Martin criticised the Taoiseach for having put the information in the Dáil library almost a week after the details emerged at the Bundestag’s finance committee meeting.

He said: “There is nothing in the troika deal that states the Government has to give anything to anybody.”