Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has ruled out adopting a policy of support for the Government’s planned financial measures in a repeat of the 1980s "Tallaght Strategy" in a time of economic crisis.
Speaking on RTÉ radio today, Mr Kenny said his party had almost been accused of “national sabotage” when it said that the country had become over-reliant on the construction industry for its economic success.
“There will be no Tallaght Strategy,” he said.
Mr Kenny said the Government had brought forward the Budget to October 14th instead of December because the decision had been forced on it.
“The country is not on its knees but corrective action should have been taken [before now],” he said.
He said there had been a failure to take action such as reforming the public service in order to get better value for money.
The Government had “missed an opportunity” to reform a public service that had become “bloated and inefficient”, he said.
It had been “absolutely scandalous” behaviour by the Government to put a “hundred thousand million” into the public service without anything in return and we were now “paying the price”.
Mr Kenny said his party would, if in charge, have taken a political decision five years ago to reform the public service and that money spent on projects such as the failed Ppars pay system for the health service, and the €60 million spent on the failed electronic voting system would not have happened.
Mr Kenny said the Government needed to “get the fundamentals right”, such as protecting our export trade. It should also open areas such as the communications sector to competition and put money into education “which is going to guarantee the future for us all”.
A 1987/89 Fianna Fáil government was underpinned by a Fine Gael opposition under then leader Alan Dukes that supported a strict clampdown on public spending in the so-called "Tallaght Strategy".