THE CABINET will continue its intense budgetary deliberations during a day-long session at Government buildings today.
Several Ministers who spoke to The Irish Timesyesterday said the biggest challenge was making the budget as fair as possible and not having too great a deflationary effect.
Ministers gathered last night for the first of two special meetings to progress its emergency four-year fiscal plan and the December budget which will be the most severe in the State’s history. The meeting in Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park got under way at 6.30pm and finished at 10pm.
The concentrated Cabinet discussions came ahead of a two-day Dáil debate this week on the economy and on the four-year plan to reduce Ireland’s deficit to 3 per cent of national income by 2014.
The meeting was delayed because of the late arrival of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan. He travelled to Brussels yesterday and met the EU’s economic and monetary commissioner Olli Rehn for 1½ hours.
According to spokespeople in Dublin and Brussels, both men discussed the economic situation and the budget but not the four-year plan, which will be submitted to Brussels in mid-November.
The Minister’s spokesman said the meeting had been arranged because Mr Lenihan was unable to attend last week’s meeting of EU finance ministers due to a family bereavement. Mr Rehn’s spokesman said that the meeting was quite regular. “Such engagements are common as budgetary preparations advance.”
Cabinet discussions to finalise both documents were yesterday described by the Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin as “painstaking and painful”.
It may take as many as 11 meeting to complete both budgetary exercises.
The Irish Timesunderstands that a briefing document circulated to Ministers suggested that every €1 billion cut could result in a drag on growth of between one quarter and one half a per cent. There is general agreement that up to €5 billion in adjustments will be made in the December budget.