Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has said the government must ‘listen to the experts’ about the future trajectory of the economy, as the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has again this week expressed caution on its spending.
The Meath West TD said:
“During the General Election campaign, Aontú committed to limit core spending growth of 5% each year, in line with the estimated trend growth rate of the Irish economy. As a party keen to ensure responsible public spending, we want to ensure that any medium to long term economic obstacles don’t plunge the economy into recession and force people to cut back on their household economy.
Despite these warnings and all the economic growth achieved in recent years, the government is currently overspending by €2bn in terms of day-to-day spending.
However, we have all seen time and again that government parties want to promise the sun, moon and stars during election campaigns with little thought to the impacts it will have on the economy. McCreevy-style election and budget giveaways are now the norm from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. This week, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has told Ministers that they need to end spending splurges announced at budgets and invest in the economy when the outlook is not good. One of the biggest threats to the economy, as Aontú have consistently highlighted, is the cost overruns of infrastructure projects such as the National Children’s Hospital.
Professor Séamus Coffey, chair of the Council, has said that there is no effective framework for fiscal policy at present – a damning indictment of government stewardship of the economy – effectively Ministers are flying by the seat of their pants – which we have seen when we have identified massive spending waste. Again today we are calling on Ministers to focus public spending on critical infrastructure across the country and to end budget giveaways that may give them a bump in the polls, but are causing long-term damage to the economic stability of the State.”
