The resignation of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has been demanded following the publication of a secret Department of Finance memo which urges €900 million in cutbacks to existing services next year.
Leading the resignation call, the Labour deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin said: "I do not believe that the public can have any confidence in anything that Minister McCreevy says.
"At a time of more difficult economic circumstances, a Minister for Finance without credibility or authority is a luxury the country cannot afford. Minister McCreevy should accept responsibility for this shocking con-job and go."
New evidence, he said, has emerged every week since the election that the Government had planned significant cutbacks - even though it was reassuring the country that none were planned.
Referring to Minister McCreevy's performance on last Friday's Late, Late Show , Mr Howlin said: "This new memo will intensify their anger and if he ever had the courage to appear on it again, he will be lucky to escape with simply being booed."
"A Government elected on a platform of lies and deceit is a Government without a shred of moral authority. This memo reveals an unprecedented level of deceit and duplicity on the part of this Government," he charged.
The secret memorandum proves that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats indulged in "deception on a massive scale" before the election, Fine Gael charged last night. The party's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton said: "Three days before the election, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance gave a solemn assurance that their budget was fully on target and no cutbacks were planned, secretly or otherwise.
"Within three weeks of the election, these same people had a detailed menu of cutbacks and new charges for public services on the Cabinet table, demanding their immediate implementation.
"The Taoiseach won't call them cutbacks because that would be admitting that he and his Ministers lied. Call it what you like, senior Ministers and the Taoiseach knew exactly what was in store for the public, as soon as they were comfortably back in their Mercs.
"This was deception on a massive scale. From the very start, the Budget figures were treated with contempt. They were designed to give a veneer of respectability to the reckless political project that was underway."
Despite repeated warnings from the Department of Finance, Mr Ahern and his Cabinet "partied on", Mr Bruton declared. "Recruitment to public services accelerated. Spending was brought forward for maximum electoral impact. The monthly evidence that spending was out of control and revenue was collapsing was ignored.
"The public is now suffering the hangover from this Government's binge. In the scramble for cutbacks, the Government has left untouched their big bureaucracies their entourage of advisers and spin-doctors."
Mr Bruton went on: "Instead, the axe is falling on ordinary people. In health, in education, in housing, the weak have been the soft touch." Demanding a statement from the Taoiseach, he said: "The Government has squandered a hard-earned surplus built up by the workers of this country. It is time for the Taoiseach to take responsibility and admit to the deception."
Sinn Féin TD, Mr Sean Crowe called on Mr McCreevy to confirm or deny that he will be seeking €900 million in cuts. "The Minister should come clean on the cuts. The document is a Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat battle plan to wage war on public sector services, including health, education, social welfare, and housing.