Gilmore: Two more 'difficult' budgets needed
14/04/2012 - 21:18:11Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has warned that two more difficult budgets are needed to bring an end to the financial crisis here.
In his keynote address to delegates at the party's national conference tonight, Eamon Gilmore said that despite the economic difficulties, "we must endure and we must persist".
"We will need two more difficult budgets, but remember, most of the hard work has been done," he said.
He said the country would recover and enjoy good jobs and opportunities again, but admitted that just one year ago - in the first weeks of the Government - he thought the country would become a "banana republic".
Mr Gilmore said work on the recovery was underway, but there were still difficult times ahead.
He admitted there needed to be more of a focus on job creation, and said the lack of progress in tackling the mortgage crisis is the issue that frustrates him most.
After hundreds protested at the door of the conference earlier, he said some of those leading the protests were "not being straight" with people.
"(The words) 'Don't pay' may look sharp on a placard, but it is neither smart nor sensible, nor is it a solution," he said.
Mr Gilmore also said that, in the wake of the corruption exposed by tribunals, a new politics with one principle - to serve the people, and only the people - was required.