LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore said that today’s Government exchequer figures should be announced in the Dáil because of the deteriorating economic situation.
When Mr Gilmore said that the announcement would be made at a press conference, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that was the normal situation.
“We are not in a normal situation, Taoiseach,” said Mr Gilmore. “We have the most dramatic turnaround in the public finances we have seen in this country for a long time.”
Mr Gilmore said the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, should come into the House to say what was in the exchequer returns and what approach the Government intended taking.
He accused the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance of speaking in coded language and dropping hints about “corrective action”, “prudent measures”, “savings” and “temporary adjustments”.
Mr Gilmore added that Mr Cowen was creating a climate to engage in cutting various programmes and services and for the possible introduction of “stealth taxes”.
The Taoiseach, he said, was “communicating the preamble of what, in effect, is a mini-budget” which would be introduced when the Dáil was in recess.
Mr Gilmore said the recession was not an international matter. “It is largely due to your mismanagement of the economy that we are in this hole at present.”
It was incredible that the Taoiseach did not know, at least in general terms, what steps were going to be taken by the Government, said Mr Gilmore.
Mr Cowen said the Government made decisions on the basis of its own figures.
The figures, he said, would be published, transparently and openly, and explained by Department of Finance officials.
“It is a long-established practice so that there can be no indication from you or from anybody else that there was some suggestion of a spin in relation to the figures.”
The Government, he said, would make decisions relating to the figures and come into the House next week and set out a broad budgetary strategy.
This was an “expeditious, sensible and orderly manner” in which to conduct Government business.
He said the decisions should not be anticipated until they were taken.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said 100,000 young people, in particular, faced the “terrifying spectacle” of their houses being of less value than their mortgage.
He said the Taoiseach would have to bear responsibility for a great deal of what was happening, despite his Government putting it down to international events.
Mr Kenny recalled that Mr Cowen had said in 2006 that the fundamentals were currently anchoring the performance of the property market.
Yet it was now known that the IMF, in 2005, had warned the house-price overvaluation in Ireland was large compared to other countries, and could not just be explained by economic fundamentals.
He asked if the Taoiseach accepted any responsibility for the “debacle” given that, as minister for finance, he knew that Irish house prices were grossly over-inflated.
Mr Cowen said mortgage interest relief had been doubled in the last number of budgets. This was a proper response.
He did not accept that he had taken a wrong policy option. “Reforms I took at the last budget were at the appropriate time.”
He was not underestimating the increased costs for mortgage holders, but increasing mortgage interest relief was the appropriate response.
Mr Kenny accused the Taoiseach of acting too little too late on the stamp duty issue.
Mr Cowen said he would defend the actions he had taken when he was minister for finance.
“The national debt fell from 30 per cent of GDP in 2004 to 25 per cent last year,” he added.
