Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

It is not credible when for the past couple of weeks the Taoiseach and the Minister have spoken in this coded language and dropped hints all over the place about corrective action, prudent measures, savings and temporary adjustments. Such language is creating the climate for the Government to engage in cutting various programmes and services and, possibly, introducing some stealth taxes. In effect, what the Taoiseach has being doing for several weeks is communicating the preamble of what in effect will be a mini-budget, yet it appears he will not present it to the House. As soon as it goes into recess, he will have a couple of months to put it into practice.

Everybody knows that the public finances have changed. Everybody understands the economic environment is different. Incidentally, this is not an international matter. It is largely due to the Taoiseach's mismanagement of the economy that we are in this hole.

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