The National Recovery Plan provides a “sound basis” for negotiations with the European Union and International Monetary Fund on a financial aid package for the State, European Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn said.
Mr Rehn said the plan "strikes a good balance of durable expenditure and revenue measures" but also shows "due regard to protecting the least well off".
"The four-year fiscal plan is an important contribution to the stabilisation of Irish public finances," he said in a statement released this evening. "I welcome the continued commitment of the Irish authorities to reducing the deficit to below 3 per cent by 2014."
Mr Rehn said the four-year plan offered a "sound basis for the negotiations on the fiscal and structural reforms" that would underlie the international financial assistance the Government has requested.
He said the policies encourage exports and a recovery of domestic demand and that their implementation would contribute to the Irish authorities' "ambitious fiscal adjustment strategy and a return to fiscal sustainability".
Mr Rehn did not comment on the State's decision not to increase corporation tax. He said a €6 billion consolidation effort in 2011 would be appropriate "as it would strike a balance between allowing the nascent recovery to strengthen and addressing budgetary challenges in a timely fashion".
