Fine Gael has called on the Government to "come clean" on the state of the public finances.
|
Fine Gael finance spokesman Mr Richard Burton said public spending has grown at twice the speed forecast in the last Budget, meaning six departments will have to instigate cutbacks in the final six months of the year.
"Public spending in the first five months has grown at twice the speed that was forecast at Budget time," Mr Bruton said.
"For the Department of the Environment it was five times the rate of growth projected. For Public Enterprise it was almost four times the pace projected. For Tourism and Sport it was three times the pace projected.
"If spending is to come in on target, as the Minister claims, this means that six Departments will have to make real cuts in its spending programmes during the remaining seven months. In Agriculture there will be real cuts of 43 per cent, in Environment real cuts of nine per cent, in Justice five per cent, in Tourism five per cent, in Education three per cent and in Public Enterprise one per cent."
Mr Bruton is calling on the Government to answer how far Budget 2002 is off target, how much the new Programme for Government will cost, what assumptions about the economy is the Minister making in negotiating spending for 2003 and what is the government’s pay policy. Today’s comments follow statements at the end of last week by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, that the annual cost to the exchequer of Special Savings Incentive Accounts (SSIAs) has reached €517 million.
According to the Labour Party, the figure is four times higher than original estimates of €127 million per annum for the scheme.
Labour says the Government is facing a bill of more than €2 billion more than expected over the next five years.