The Opposition last night rounded on the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, following his warning that the Exchequer finances have deteriorated further since June.
Accusing Mr McCreevy of "gross mismanagement", Fine Gael's finance spokesperson, Mr Richard Bruton said a €4.6 billion surplus "created by taxpayers" has been "squandered".
Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said: "The public have already made their decision on whether Mr McCreevy lied to them in advance of the last election.
"No amount of spinning by the Minister will change that. His pathetic defence today to the charges levelled against him is that things are worse than he thought in June. It's a case of 'I'm actually more incompetent that you thought I was'," he declared.
The Minister's record at the helm of the Department of Finance had been poor, he said.
"When times were good he inappropriately told us to 'party'. Now that times are not so good he is taking valuable investment out of the economy and the most vulnerable members of our society are paying the price," said Mr Howlin.
He underestimated the cost of the Special Savings Incentive Account scheme by 500 per cent, and took money from the Social Insurance Fund that should have been used to increase "miserable" redundancy payments.
"He forgot to tell the nation that he couldn't use Central Bank money to balance the books, more than doubled inflation and succeeded in turning healthy surpluses into deficits.
"On top of that the National Development Plan has ground to a halt and after six of the most prosperous years in the State's history we have little or nothing to show for it", said Mr Howlin.
Meanwhile, a Green Party TD, Mr Dan Boyle, said the Minister for Finance has been forced into making "an honest comment" for the first time since last year's Book of Estimates.
Just "a few short weeks ago", Mr McCreevy was boasting that he could perform a miracle in meeting projected annual spending figures, claimed the Cork South Central TD.
Meanwhile, Labour said the cut of €50 million on health spending this year would cause chaos in health boards, since they are already heading for a €77 million overrun by the end of the year.
Next year's planned 7.5 per cent rise in the health budget would not cover needs since medical inflation is rising by 10 per cent, said Deputy Liz McManus, the party's spokeswoman on health.
The National Health Strategy promised that no adult would wait more than 12 months for hospital care and that no child would wait longer than six months, she reminded the Minister.
The Special Treatment Fund set up to end up waiting lists has already had €15 million cut from its budget. "This objective is now in tatters and unrealisable", Ms McManus declared.
