Charlie McCreevy,Sticking by his decisions
The Taoiseach has described yesterday's Budget as prudent, caring and equitable. Bertie Ahern said that it would underpin national development.
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Ahern defended Charlie McCreevy's use of reserve funds to avoid borrowing. He said that if this was not a rainy day, he did not know what was.
The Labour leader, Ruairí Quinn, said that he had never seen such a blatant attempt to buy the votes of the Irish electorate. On RTÉ radio, the Fine Gael leader, Michael Noonan, said that Mr McCreevy could not disguise the fact that the country was sliding into borrowing and deficit but that this could not be done forever.
He added, however, that there would be no need to raise taxes in the future. Mr Noonan said that money would be required from other sources, such as borrowing, for the National Development Plan but that public-private partnerships would be the way forward.
Meanwhile, Mr McCreevy today defended his decision to take monies from the Central Bank and the Social Insurance Fund. He said that, in effect, all he was doing was transferring these monies from the funds they were originally in into the National Pension Reserve Fund.
Jim Mitchell of Fine Gael described the move as "creative accounting" while Labour's Derek McDowell said that the Budget was a lie, a fraud and a disgrace.
It is thought that special legislation will be needed to allow the Government to use funds from the social insurance and Central Bank funds to pay for the Budget spend.
Last night, the Government had a comfortable majority in the first votes on tax changes in the Budget, winning the vote on the extra five pence on petrol by 81 votes to 73. The Budget is the Coalition's fifth and last before the next general election.
