MINISTER FOR FINANCE:MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan has said the setting up of a national government would "not help matters" and would delay Government decisions aimed at solving the economic crisis.
“I fail to see how reconstructing a government in the interim is going to address or speed that process,” Mr Lenihan said.
Speaking in Washington where he is attending the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, Mr Lenihan said: “You cannot suddenly arrive in and say, ‘well let us have a national government’ if there is not a common analysis of what the problems actually are.”
Mr Lenihan said a step-by-step approach, involving Opposition parties in the run-up to the publication of a four-year budget strategy in November, was needed.
“Last week I announced and the Government announced that the books of the Department of Finance are open to the Opposition parties. Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin, all of the parties can come in and examine the analysis, the forecast, the expenditure options, the policy implications; look at the revenue base, look at revenue projections. All that information is now available to the Opposition parties.
“The logical next step is to see whether there is a common analysis . . . The Government is doing their work on the analysis and the solutions. And I have no doubt that when the Opposition parties have the information, they too will do their work, their analysis. And then let us see whether there is a common analysis.
Asked if he was excluding the possibility of setting up an all-party forum to discuss the State’s budgetary framework, Mr Lenihan said: “No, we’re not excluding anything. But there has to be a step by step approach.”
He said it was important to secure as broad a consensus as possible and said the Government would continue to engage with the Opposition.
“We can rule nothing out in terms of a structure for engagement. But before that structure can be productive, we must be satisfied that there is a common analysis of the problem.”