UNION POSITION:THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions has described that Government's target of bringing the deficit in the public finances down to 3 per cent by 2014 as "ridiculously deflationary".
Speaking yesterday the economics adviser to congress Paul Sweeney said that a lot of economists agreed with its position that the 2014 target was “not achievable”.
Congress has consistently argued over the two years that the measures required to meet the 2014 target would be “too brutal, too quick”. It has also warned of the dangers of turning the recession into a long-term economic slump.
Mr Sweeney said the policy pursued by the Government over the last three years had not worked and it had “choked off domestic demand”.
He said that if the Government went for more austerity in the forthcoming budget it would make the problem deeper.
He said the Government had been focused on exports, which he described as a ray of hope.
However, he said that “the stuff we are exporting is capital intensive and doing nothing for jobs”. He said that these were in the domestic economy.
Mr Sweeney said he agreed that there had to be cuts.
“However, we must not cut too much,” he said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that people in Ireland were angry but they were more fearful.
“If brings in a heavy austerity budget, it may be the tipping point in which anger comes out,” he said.
Mr Sweeney asked if workers were facing cuts and levies, could the corporate sector not pay (an additional) 2 per cent to bring in €630 million?
Asked about the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform, he said that the ink was hardly dry on the agreement.
However he said he did not disagree that public sector reform was necessary.
He said that this was something which every economy had to address.
He said that there was a lot of productivity which could be squeezed out of the public sector without too much pain.
