Reaction has been swift to the publication of the Exchequer returns this evening. The Director of the Small Firms Association Patricia Callan said the 'damning' Exchequer returns clearly showed that the private sector simply 'could no longer afford to pay for the public sector.'
"The reason that tax revenues are so down is that the private sector economy is being decimated by the recession and the Government has no choice but to implement a minimum of €2bn extra cuts in the public sector, if it is to have any hope of realizing its target of 9.5 per cent GDP deficit in 2009, " she said this evening.
Ms Callan called for the public sector pay and pensions bill to be urgently cut to reflect the cuts that are taking place within the private sector.
Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald described the returns as a "public finance crisis" and said the country needed a new Government.
"The public finances continue to freefall and the Government has still not delivered a real plan on how it intends to reverse this trend. Sinn Féin supports the call for a new budget but let's face facts, what we really need is a new administration at the helm.
"And let's not kid ourselves that the economy would be in better hands with Fine Gael in government. Their economic model, like the governments, is without vision or purpose. They, like the government, have no strategy, no purpose, and no vision for getting Ireland back to work," she added.
Employers group Ibec welcomed the move to bring forward new measures to address the crisis in the public finances.
Speaking this evening Ibec director general Turlough O'Sullivan said: "It is good news that the Government has said it will take action by the end of the month."
However he said it was becoming 'increasingly clear' that the pension levy would not make the hoped for substantial contribution to addressing the deteriorating position in the public finances.
"In addition, no measures have been taken to address the cost and competitiveness pressures endured by business and exporters to the sterling area in particular. In the meantime, jobs continue to be lost at an alarming rate."
He said Ibec was "positively disposed" engagement with government and others, including Ictu and the main opposition parties, to address the economic crisis in "a decisive, fair and equitable manner."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Government needed to include a radical overhaul of the public sector as part of its response to the latest deterioration in the public finances.
He offered a "guarded welcome" to the Government's announcement that it is to have an emergency Budget before the end of the month.
"While we still have to see the detail on what the Government are going to deliver I offer a guarded welcome for the decision, belated as it is, by Brian Cowen to accept my call for a new Budget," he said.
"Fine Gael is clear that any new Budget must deal with both spending controls and taxation measures. It has to be fair, so that means that those that can pay more should pay more. Finally, this Budget must slash waste in the public sector. That means that the big spending agencies like the HSE and FAS should generate
significant savings and every daft or failing programme must go, " he added.