Gilmore warns of more spending cuts
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore tonight warned economic sovereignty cannot be regained if every single spending cut and reform is resisted.
The Labour Party leader said the coalition was faced with hard decisions as further cuts would have to be inflicted.
He told delegates Labour and Fine Gael have to rescue the Irish economy and maintained only boldness, imagination and willingness to take on difficult tasks will ensure success.
Mr Gilmore said good public and health services and an effective education system are not drains on the economy, but enablers of it.
“But the fact is, we are going to have to achieve these things in the context of smaller budgets that have to decline further,” he said.
“And the fact is too, that even if Ireland did not have to fix its public finances, the world around us is changing, and public services have to change with it.
“Let there be no doubt: as a people – and as a party – we will not succeed in regaining our economic sovereignty, and in fixing what is broken in our country, if every single spending cut and every single reform is resisted.”
Mr Gilmore was giving the annual Jim Kemmy address at the Tom Johnson Summer School in Kilkenny, hosted by Labour Youth.
He warned that citizens, politicians and public servants will have to tackle the large budget deficit honestly, fairly, and without special pleading.
“We do have choices to make, as a nation, about what our priorities are,” added the minister for foreign affairs and trade.
“But we do not have a choice about facing up to the gap between what we spend as a country, and what we take in.”
