Sir, - Who does Charlie McCreevy think he is fooling (July 11th)? He says it will be his "duty as Minister for Finance that the tax reductions promised both in the Partnership 2000 and in our Programme for Government are carried out in such a way as to underpin economic stability and growth rather than undermine it." However, the fact is that the Fianna Fail Election Manifesto and the Programme for Government are documents which will undermine economic growth and certainly not underpin it.
Fianna Fail promised one of the biggest tax give-aways in the history of the State during the recent election. They constantly used the sound-bite of "cutting tax rates". Instead of getting prudent economic management, we get the definition of economic mismanagement.
There is no economic justification for tax cuts in an overheating, buoyant economy. We seem to be slipping down the same slope as boom-and-bust Britain. Consumer spending is at an all-time high and economic growth has been breaking all records. Do we want to put this in jeopardy through populist tax cuts?
Already we are suffering inflationary pressures due to the booming economy and the weak punt. Tax cuts would further exacerbate inflation, which would lead us into an endless cycle of high interest rates, loss of competitiveness, high unemployment and failure to qualify for the single currency.
The real contradiction in Mr McCreevy's letter is his wish to limit spending to 4 per cent to finance these tax cuts. A brief look through Fianna Fail's Election Manifesto shows its endless list of promises. If these were all implemented, Mr McCreevy would significantly exceed his 4 per cent target. Or will there be lots of broken promises? - Yours, etc., RICHARD O'CONNELL, St Francis Square, Dublin 8.