McCreevy denies crisis in public finances

Fianna Fáil's Mr Charlie McCreevy this morning denied there was a looming crisis in the public finances and said the Exchequer balance will be in line with his predictions at the end of the year.

At a morning briefing, Mr McCreevy said Opposition parties were criticising public spending increases without saying where they could reduce costs.

Figures from the Department of Finance show tax revenue fell by 2.8 per cent in the first three months of this year.

Mr McCeevy said the tax revenue figures for this year were distorted by a number of events; the taxation changes taking effect from January 1st, social welfare increases taking effect earlier, while the 1 per cent VAT increase was only kicking in now.

He added that if the figures for April were included the year-on-year decrease was only 1.8 per cent. "I would be quite confident taxation is going to rebound in line with our profile".

He said Ireland remained in the strongest fiscal position of all the EU counties and added that "most countries would love to have a situation where their [national] debt was only 35 per cent".

Allocating resources to Campus Stadium Ireland in the face of numerous competing demands for public spending was defended by Mr McCreevy, who said it was in his opinion as important to the national infrastructure as roads and a National Museum.

"Building of the stadium will not take place in one year. It will be built over a number of years. I think it is possible in the correct economic circumstances to build a stadium and it won’t be to the depravation of any other areas of public spending."