Speaking at the Fine Gael launch, ‘Pre-Budget Perspectives on a Fair Way to Fix the Economy and the Public Finances’, Party Leader Enda Kenny TD said:

“Today we are just five days from a budget that will be crucial for Ireland's future. At a time when the country needs leadership and certainty, we have a Government that's paralysed by uncertainty and its complicity in driving the economy over a cliff.

“It is a Government characterised by chaos and confusion.

“The chaotic scenes at Government Buildings over the past few days, as this Government scrambles around for ideas and solutions, is sending a very weak message about their capacity to grapple with the challenges facing them. For months, the Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance promised tough and resolute action. They promised that the public pay bill would be cut by €1.3 billion without impacting on public services. This strategy is now in tatters.

“While I fully respect the right of the trade unions to represent their members, it is not appropriate for the Government to lock themselves into this clandestine process so near to the Budget. Nor is it acceptable for any of the participants to tell those of us who have electoral mandates to ‘butt-out’ and stay silent. Respect, in my book, works both ways.

“The only question that the Government will answer on Wednesday is which sectors of our society are going to be forced to pay for the mistakes and incompetence of this Government. Who will have further sacrifices demanded of them so that more and more taxpayers’ money can be pumped into banks to bail them out.

“The draconian measures in this Budget should not have been necessary. They could have and should have been avoided but Fianna Fáil, and Taoiseach Brian Cowen in particular, failed to anticipate the crisis and plan accordingly. They ignored all warnings from Fine Gael and independent experts that the economy was overheating and that the Government was too reliant on an unsustainable housing market.

“They have made things worse by failing to provide any plan to get people back to work. They are offering the Irish people no hope for the future, just endless painful budgets and cuts in our services. As a result, people have no confidence to spend or invest, as evidenced by the huge increase in personal savings.

“Fine Gael has a fundamentally different approach to the economic and budgetary crisis. Our strategy has the principle of fairness at its core. That’s why I have said that change must start at the top. If we are to demand change and sacrifices from others, we must demonstrate that we are prepared to lead by example. That’s why I have proposed a referendum to abolish the Seanad and a reduction in the size of the Dáil. While these changes will save some money, their real value will be as the catalyst for reform throughout the Government system.

“We don’t see the Budget as a stand alone event. We believe that it should be an element of an economic recovery plan. We understand that the only sustainable way to turn this country around is to get our people back to work. That’s why we have already published a comprehensive set of policies to support the protection and creation of jobs, including our National Recovery Bank, NEWERA, a reduction on employers PRSI and, most recently, Leo Varadkar’s job creation proposals.

“Along with our budget principles we are publishing today, these plans offer real hope for the future. The hope that, with decisive leadership, we can solve our economic crisis by getting people off welfare and back to work.

“In a Fine Gael Government, I intend that the Department of the Taoiseach will drive the delivery of our plans. To do so we will need a smaller, leaner department that does not duplicate the work of other departments and agencies. To achieve this, I will revamp the Taoiseach’s Department to focus it on the implementation and delivery of our programme.

“In our proposals today, Richard Bruton sets out how Fine Gael in government would approach the challenge of the Budget for 2010 in a fairer and more effective way-an approach that is in stark contrast to that of a government in chaos.”