Budget date will not lead to 'stricter' EU package

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has rejected Fine Gael claims that not bringing the budget forward would make the EU and IMF funding package “more rigorous” with “stricter conditions”.

Mr Cowen also rejected Labour claims that he had given the Dáil and the public “a bum steer on the banks for a very long time”. He told Labour leader Eamon Gilmore that “your assertion that there’s bum steers being given is blown away by the fact that the European partners and the banks and institutions are supportive and agree that the decisions we have made in this matter have been the right decisions to make”.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he spoke to the European Commission, which “made it perfectly clear that every hour that passes, every day that goes by, every week that moves along makes the position more drastic for the Irish taxpayer, the Irish people and, as a consequence, the package will be all the more rigorous with even stricter conditions”. He said “bringing forward the budget would have been an answer in part to this issue”.

Mr Kenny also pressed Mr Cowen to tell the House the amount of funding that would be provided, the level of interest and the proportion for funding for the banks in the “overdraft” being provided from EU and IMF funds.

He asked Mr Cowen: “How do you propose to ensure a fair sharing of the costs between the taxpayers and the investors in the banks including some of the bondholders in a way that protects the Irish State from bankruptcy?”

Mr Cowen, declining to specify the figures, repeatedly insisted that the issues were “sensitive” and negotiations were proceeding “as quickly as possible”.

He said “the sustainability of our debt burden is an important part of how we proceed here as well. I am confident that if we get an outcome we can be in a position to confirm that we’re in a position to manage that situation”.

Mr Cowen said there would have been a difficult situation “if there were a situation where we weren’t bringing in a budget until the new year without full-year effects”. He said however that “the Government is moving along the timelines that have already been agreed between the parties concerned”.

Mr Gilmore pressed Mr Cowen about the amount of money involved and the interest for the “loan or an overdraft or call it what you want, money from the EU”. Accusing Mr Cowen of giving a “bum steer” he said people were entitled to know “at least the ballpark figure for what is required for the banks out of this €85 billion”.

Mr Cowen again declined to say how much was being advanced as an “overdraft” because it was still in negotiation, but that “of the order of €85 billion is a figure that has been discussed” and it was “not a three-figure sum”. Mr Gilmore said: “We have to drag the information out of you. This isn’t private business. This is public business and we’re in the unusual situation that you and your Government in its final days are in the process of negotiating what you now call a very big overdraft on behalf of the people of the country.”