Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has said "difficult and substantial" decisions would have to be taken to deal with the financial crisis.
The Government is next week expected to introduce pay cuts in the public sector in an effort to save €2 billion from exchequer spending this year
Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Mr Ahern said "everything is on the table" because it had to be, and the Government needed the support of the social partners in the difficult decisions that would have to be taken.
The Government faced "probably the most drastic decisions any government in the last 30 or 40 years has had to make", he added.
“But we have to do it and we need general support from the public,” he said.
“I think there is an understanding now, when you even hear some of the comments from the social partners that they do accept that the financial position of the country is difficult, that we can’t go on spending the way we have been spending.
“We have to cut our cloth to meet our measure. We need support and we need people to understand... We all have to make sacrifices and I think the Government has shown a lead in that respect.”
“At the risk of being unpopular we have to make decisions that will sustain this country for the next few decades.”
Asked about the Green Party's suggestion that the number of junior ministers should be reduced by at least three as a cost-cutting measure in government, Mr Ahern said: “I heard the suggestion, but to be honest it’s a little bit facile to say that by getting rid of three junior ministers we’re going to cure the ills of the country,” he said.
“The fact is that the Government are looking very intensely, and have been over Christmas, at the financial situation and we will be making decisions in the not-too-distant future.”
Mr Ahern and Taoiseach Brian Cowen today both rejected reports of a rift between Mr Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan
“The Cabinet is completely united on it and I am bemused by some of the [media] reports," Mr Ahern said. He said reports of rifts between members of the Government over proposed cuts in public spending were "nonsense".
Mr Cowen said that he had read reports about differences between him and Mr Lenihan but they had no basis in fact. "There are no tensions between us at all. What we are talking about is the Cabinet making decisions based on proposals that will come from the partners in the normal way," he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said today cuts in jobs and pay in the public sector are now clearly on the agenda to curtail the deterioration in public finances. Mr Kenny said, however, the Government had failed to set out clearly what its plan is.
He was speaking in Limerick, where he was meeting party TDs from the region to discuss the jobs crisis prompted by the announcement of 1,900 redundancies at Dell last week.
When asked about cutbacks in the public wage bill and public sector jobs, Mr Kenny said his party “has always followed the principle of tough, but fair decisions”.
“You have to take into account the proportionate spread of public income within the service. Clearly cutbacks of some description are on the agenda, we are not sure of the extent yet, but obviously there is a need to consider the range of incomes within the public service that apply,” he said.
"We understand from the Minister for Finance that he wants to announce a billion in cuts by the end of this month and a billion later on in the year," Mr Kenny said.
"We have no clarity either from the Tánaiste or from the Taoiseach as to what the extent and range of the cuts that they propose to make are, or when they propose to make them.
"Nor do we know, indeed, that when they receive options from the McCarthy committee or ‘An Bord Snip Nua’ as it’s called, do they propose to make these cutbacks on an ongoing basis or do they expect people to take all the medicine early on. We have no clarity from Government as to what their own strategy really is.”
The Government is expected to tell unions next week that most of the €2 billion that must be cut from exchequer spending this year will have to come from pay cuts for civil and public servants.
A memorandum to the Cabinet has yet to be prepared by Mr Lenihan, and a final pay cuts figure has yet to be decided, but he appears ready to demand major sacrifices in talks next week with the social partners.
Mr Cowen and the Minister will meet unions, employers and other groups once Mr Cowen has returned from leading a trade mission to Japan.
The Cabinet is to hold meetings next week to identify savings but Ministers do not believe that major service cutbacks can produce hundreds of millions worth of savings by year’s end.