Opposition will not be 'browbeaten' on cuts

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has warned the Government that it would not “browbeat” Opposition parties into accepting all the elements of its budget cuts.

He said he had earlier heard Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin stating that the Opposition parties should now accept the €15 billion in cuts.

“The leaders of Fine Gael and Labour, who attended the meeting last week with the Taoiseach and the absent Minister for the Environment, have accepted the target to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by 2014,” said Mr Kenny. He added that six months after finalising the Croke Park agreement, not a single euro had been saved by its provisions.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin accused Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, Fine Gael and Labour of forming a “consensus for cuts”. His party, he added, stood apart from that, but not alone.

“The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and its constituent unions, the community and voluntary sector, the ESRI and a range of economists, have warned against the strategy of attempting to cut the budget deficit to 3 per cent by 2014,” he said.