The Government has still to decide on the scale of cuts in the December budget, Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Dáil this afternoon.
It is also considering its four-year budgetary plan to be announced in November, he said. Mr Cowen was replying to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who asked if the budget cuts would be more than €4 billion.
Meanwhile, Mr Cowen insisted to Labour leader Eamon Gilmore that he did not know Anglo Irish Bank was facing insolvency the night the Government issued a blanket bank guarantee, despite attending an earlier meeting at which officials discussed the bank’s situation.
Mr Gilmore said it was “very strange’’ that AIB and Bank of Ireland would not have disclosed Anglo’s insolvency to the Taoiseach that night.
Mr Gilmore said documents provided to the Dáil’s public spending watchdog signalled senior Department of Finance officials had concerns.
“Did you yourself never raise the question of Anglo’s solvency?” Mr Gilmore asked.
But Mr Cowen again stressed that the Government’s decision to guarantee the banks was the best solution.
Separately, the Cabinet today signed off on opening the State’s books to the Opposition to help them devise their own four-year budgetary strategy.
The Department of Finance is to write to the opposition parties after the Cabinet agreed to the olive branch.
A Government source said the department would effectively “make the books available”, providing information on the economic and budgetary parameters and costings if needed.
A four-year budgetary plan is to be published in early November to set out a roadmap to help bring the country’s deficit to 3 per cent of the value of the economy, or Gross Domestic Product, by 2014.
The massive €29.3 billion Anglo Irish Bank bail-out bill, coupled with the €5.4 billion being ploughed into Irish Nationwide and the extra €3 billion into AIB, was expected to leave the deficit at a massive 32 per cent of GDP, although Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan branded this a one-off spike.
It has been speculated that measures to plug the deficit could see water charges and a property tax on the cards in the coming years, as well as a widening of the tax net to include lower paid workers.
In the Dáil, Mr Kenny said the figures had left people shocked, confused and angry.
“They felt that having taken salary cuts and pension levies ... that they were really making a contribution towards sorting out the financial crisis and the economic situation that your Government has led the country into,” he said.
“And now of course they know the difference.” The Government has signalled the country needs to brace itself for a slash in public spending of more than €3 billion in the December budget.
Despite Fine Gael calls for Mr Cowen to reveal the full budget target, the Taoiseach said it would not be available until November.
Speculation has centred on a possible cut to child benefit for high earners, following on from the UK, after Minister for Children Barry Andrews said it should be looked at.
The Department of Finance said that the pre-budget outlook, due later this month, and the four-year plan would be merged into one publication in November.