Public must give views on McCarthy report - Ó Cuív

THE McCARTHY report gives some sense of what would happen to Ireland if an economist from Dublin 4 was running the country, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has said.

One of the report’s recommendations is the abolition of Mr Ó Cuív’s Government department.

In an interview with Clare FM, Mr Ó Cuív said: “We have a report from McCarthy. I think we get some sense of what would happen the country if an economist from Dublin 4 was running the country.”

He added: “I think it is very, very different to what politicians would do. It is an interesting report. It gives us an agenda. I think that part of that agenda certainly would not be acceptable to a larger number of people.

“But the one thing we have to note that is if this agenda is not acceptable, we have to cut Government expenditure so some other agenda will have to be agreed.

“There is no escaping the fact that in the present economic climate, we cannot continue to spend the amount of money we are spending every year.”

He added: “Everything in the McCarthy report is a suggestion from him. None of them have been approved yet by Government.

“We will debate them all. We are giving the public a chance by publishing the report to make their views known.

“But when the public make their views known, they can’t say they don’t want any cutbacks, because that is not realistic, so the public have to tell us which way they think we should do, allowing that we do have to make quite severe cutbacks in public expenditure.”

Asked later in the Burren village of Ballyvaughan what he meant by describing Mr McCarthy as a “Dublin 4 economist”, Mr Ó Cuív attempted to qualify his earlier remarks. He said: “That’s what he is. He has a particular perspective on the world. I think it is a very interesting perspective. It has a certain way of looking at the economy. Even though I come from Dublin 4 myself, I see things in a radically different way.

“It is fair to say that Colm Mc- Carthy has a particular view of the world. It is a very challenging view. We have to analyse everything he said and if we think he is wrong, we have to show an alternative way of doing things.”