Former European Commissioner and Goldman Sachs International chairman Peter Sutherland has said Ireland is in danger of losing credibility unless what he called 'hard decisions' on cutting costs are made.
He told the Institute of Directors in Dublin that Ireland's position in debt markets had deteriorated, despite the successful auction of €1.5 billion of bonds earlier this week.
Mr Sutherland claimed that our costs - mainly but not exclusively on pay - were still far too high, and we had failed to measure our costs against those of other European countries. 'If we did so, it would be apparent that we are still way above average in many areas, particularly in the public sector and this says nothing about pension costs,' he said.
Mr Sutherland said lower prices and wages were 'essential' to avoid unemployment.
Referring to the €3 billion of measures mentioned for the next Budget, he said more cuts could be found if the main political parties accepted that more was needed and were prepared to say so.
The former commissioner said cuts would be painful, but the alternative was much greater pain through the higher cost of borrowing.
Market concerns on funding overdone - Corrigan
The head of the country's debt agency said today that market concerns about the imminent funding challenges facing Irish banks are overdone.
John Corrigan, the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, said the authorities stand ready to make up any shortfalls.
'We've characterised concerns around that like the millennium bug,' Mr Corrigan told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dublin today.
'We all thought the planes were going to fall out of the sky, the trains were going to stop, the clocks weren't going to work,' he said.
'Institutional support is there if necessary to meet the pressures that may arise,' Corrigan added.
Meanwhile, the cost of the country's borrowing continued to climb higher today.
The rate of interest demanded by investors for Irish Government ten-year bonds rose to over 6.6% today.
