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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
Budget
Gilmore: ECB official's comments are annoying and unhelpful
An ECB economist suggested Irish public sector pay should be cut. The Tánaiste wasn’t impressed.
THE TÁNAISTE HAS described comments by outgoing ECB economist Jürgen Stark about public spending cuts as unhelpful and annoying, and emphasised that Ireland is meeting the targets of its bailout programme.
Stark, who announced his resignation from the ECB this month, suggested that public sector pay should be cut in Ireland.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Tony Connolly in Brussels today, Eamon Gilmore said that the IMF, ECB and EU have all agreed that Ireland is implementing the programme agreed in the bailout deal last year.
“The Irish government will honour its agreements with the international institutions,” Gilmore insisted. He also said that the government had been considering a range of options for areas to cut in the next Budget and it will decide on which cuts to make to meet the deficit reduction targets it is committed to.
Minister Pat Rabbitte warned this morning that the next Budget will be “extremely painful” as the government looks for €3.6bn in savings in addition to last year’s cuts.
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