Tánaiste denies Cabinet divisions over McCarthy

TÁNAISTE MARY Coughlan denied that there were Cabinet divisions over the McCarthy report on public expenditure.

She was responding, on the order of business, to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who said it now seemed that three Ministers were opposed to the report.

“The Tánaiste, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism made it three-to-one against,” he added.

“I do not know whether she wishes to say anything about that or whether that is the position as we move towards the Lisbon referendum and subsequent to it.”

Ms Coughlan said she wanted to reiterate exactly what was happening regarding preparation for the budget. “The McCarthy report is providing options. If there are alternatives to those options, they will be considered.

“All of this will be considered by the Government, but the bottom line is €4 billion of reductions in expenditure will have to be found,” she said.

Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar asked if the figure was €3 billion or €4 billion.

Ms Coughlan said that people would have to wait until such time as the deliberative process had been completed before any final decisions were made.

“Contrary to what the deputy indicated in his press release, the Government is not in disarray, and, contrary to his other opinion that McCarthy is shelved, it is not,” she added.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said he thanked the Tánaiste for clarifying the Government’s objective on public expenditure cuts.

“She has confirmed, both in an interview and on the record of the House, that the Government’s objective is to achieve €4 billion in cuts in public expenditure, obviously something of significance,” he added.

“We now know what will be in the budget in so far as cuts and spending are concerned.”

When Mr Gilmore asked if the Government had chosen a date for the budget, Ms Coughlan replied that it had not.

“It is the same answer as yesterday, and it will be the same answer until the Government makes its decision on when the budget will be introduced,” she added.

Asking what the problem was, Mr Gilmore said that “we all plan our diaries, even personally”.

When challenged by Labour’s Emmet Stagg, Ms Coughlan refused to be drawn on the proposed reduction of the number of Dáil committees from 22 to 15.