Ahern under pressure over spending cuts
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was facing political pressure both externally and from inside Fianna Fail tonight over planned big cuts in public spending.
The expenditure reductions were announced late last week when Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy detailed his book of estimates for his pre-Christmas budget.
The move finally confirmed the end of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economic boom and presaged what is expected to be one of the toughest budgets in a decade.
And as the Labour Party tonight tabled a Dail motion calling for an immediate reversal of one of the most controversial proposals - the scrapping of grants for first-time home-buyers – there were also signals of clear resistance to the idea from backbench members of Fianna Fail.
Labour’s Environment spokesman, Eamon Gilmore, said the abolition of the grant would make it more difficult for young people to compete against investors to buy a home.
And he maintained that, given the opposition to the move from Fianna Fail backbenchers, there was not a majority in the Dail in favour of the ending the grant.
A Dail debate on the cuts issue is due to begin in the Dail tomorrow, and Fianna Fail grassroots feelings are likely to be spelled out at a party meeting on Wednesday.
: In a separate, but related move, Ireland’s six main forestry companies said as many 1,000 jobs in rural areas were being threatened by cutbacks announced in the book of estimates.
They highlighted fears that tree-planting next year will be halved to around 20,000 acres, and claimed the envisaged cuts were so serious that up to 20 million seedling trees could have to burned as there would be no use for them.
They also said the immediate impact would be the loss of €20m to the rural economy and the loss of €10m in EU funds.
