Gavan Reilly's Portfolio writings, ramblings, mumblings

Callan crimewave leads to call for more Gardaí

RESIDENTS IN CALLAN have started a petition calling for a greater number of Gardaí on the streets of the town following a spate of recent break-ins and robberies.

A shop in the town had its door kicked in and a quantity of cash stolen on Sunday morning – the latest in a series of violent incidents in the Kilkenny town.

The petition was circulated after a barber on Mill Street in the town was held at knife-point last week. Two homes nearby were also broken into, while other properties have been ransacked. One of the victims of a robbery had recently celebrated a landmark birthday and had gifts – including a quantity of cash – stolen from his house, while another victim had a delivery of winter fuel stolen just moments after it had been delivered.

Furthermore, one publican had a sizeable quantity of money taken from his till when a customer walked behind his bar and helped himself to the takings. When the thief was discovered, the culprit was identified on the bar’s CCTV systems; some of the cash has since been recovered, and Gardaí were informed of the incident. [Read more →]

Debate and delight at Hole in the Wall’s rebirth

IT is a bitterly cold Friday evening in Kilkenny city, two days after Ireland has been subjected to another in a series of equally chilly budgets, and David McWilliams is teetering on the brink of tears.

He is telling of a time when his father, having been made redundant and terrified that his Glenageary neighbours might find out, tried to keep himself busy by any means possible. “He told me in later years he used to go down to Brittas Bay and walk, for the whole day… That’s what unemployment is all about; it’s psychological, it’s emotional, it’s deep, and it’s corrosive.”

It’s an unusual moment of pathos for the famed economist, but not one that lasts for very long. The evening is not a solemn occasion, after all, but one of celebration, and of new tidings and beginnings.

The setting is the ‘Hole in the Wall’, at 17 High Street: a building not currently known to very many, not least because of its misleading exterior facade (a currently derelict retail unit last occupied by Sasha). Step down the medieval alleyway to the left, though, and its richer heritage is revealed.

Built in 1582 as the inner house of Martin Archer’s mansion – and thus predating Kilkenny’s status as a city – the Hole in the Wall was family home to the Archer family for almost 70 years before being seized during the Cromwellian conquest of 1649. Once returned to local ownership, it served as an ale house, as a meeting venue for the Charitable and Benevolent Societies and as a setting for the duels of passing highwaymen.

More pertinently, though, it was put to use in the 1860s as a debating theatre where the burning topical and social issues of the day would be discussed with vigour and, presumably, a great deal of bile (it’s entirely possible that the deadly duels of the highwaymen might well have coincided with the more divisive disputes of the day).

It is for this use – of a venue for intellectual brainstorming – that renowned cardiologist Dr Micheal Conway has restored the building, having purchased the derelict property in 1999 and spent a decade restoring the property to its former glory, replete with eloquent tapestries and downstairs tavern, where attendees were offered a glass of wine to celebrate the venue’s rebirth.

McWilliams himself failed – as he so rarely does – to disappoint, holding his audience captive with his thoughts on how Ireland could, at a stroke, rescue itself from its slump, by temporarily suspending its membership of the European Monetary Union and the euro, and devaluing the newly reconstituted Irish Punt.

“We will not become competitive until a shopping basket in Dundalk costs the same as a shopping basket in Newry,” the author and broadcaster explained. “All this nonsense of a 2% wage cut here, or 3% wage cut out there, won’t make a difference. All it’ll make us is insolvent.”

Befitting the tone of the evening, tough, McWilliams’s talk was not entirely foreboding of doom, and had its wittier segues too.

“In 50 years time we’re going to write very interesting books,” he joked, hypothesising the research of historians decades from now. “‘Do you remember a little country in the west of Europe? A little country that thought it was a very good idea to denude its entire retail base, and allow it to migrate to a different jurisdiction called ‘Newry’? And it had a public sector strike where the teachers responded to the inequity of the system by driving to a different jurisdiction to buy booze?’ That’s what is happening in Ireland.” A brisk but weighty question-and-answer session followed, staying true to the intended aim of holding a genuine debate.

And so was a venue one central to Kilkenny’s intellectual culture reborn in the modern age. Next on the agenda is a lecture tomorrow evening (December 17, 7.30pm) on the history of the short-lived University College which sat on the grounds of Kilkenny College for the six months prior to the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 – a suitably academic topic for a venue with much to offer the Kilkenny of today: a portal away from the financial turbulence of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, to a bygone but altogether captivating era.

Kilkenny students receive highest rate of grant approvals

STUDENTS applying to Kilkenny County Council for grants to help fund their third-level education have the highest rate of approval of any area in the country. A total of 747 of the 762 applicants – approximately 98% – of student who applied to the Council for grants were deemed suitable for payment. Just 15 applicants to the County Council were denied a grant.

It has also emerged that Kilkenny County Council spent almost €67,000 processing grant applications for students enrolled in full-time third-level education this year.

The costs cover general administrative expenses incurred in processing applications, such as staffing, stamp duty and postage, but do not cover the amount of grant payments to successful applicants.

Kilkenny’s administrative costs of €113.95 per applicant were among the lowest in the country. Westmeath County Council spent just €70.51 processing each grant application, wihle North Tipperary accrued an average cost of €484.25 dealing with applicants.

The figures, obtained by UCD Students’ Union, were obtained under the Freedom of Information Acts. The union has been campaigning for the centralisation of the grant administration system, as was proposed under the currently stalled Student Support Bill.

Union president, Gary Redmond, said he found it “absolutely baffling how different local authorities can spend so much public money processing grants, comparied to others that can achieve the same results for cheaper.”

Redmond argued that a centralised system would be better suited to the needs of both student applicants and local authorities. “We need a complete overhaul of the grants immediately. It’s in the best interest of not only students, but the taxpayer too.

“As piloted in Dublin this year, all local authorities should pay grant installments directly into students’ bank accounts – this negates the cost of postage and stamp duty applicable to each cheque.”

Students can apply for third-level maintenance grants to either their local County Council or Vocational Educational Committee (VEC). VECs nationwide, which are exempt from Freedom of Information requests, declined to offer details of the cost incurred in dealing with applications made to them.

Budget axes three teachers from St John of God’s

ST JOHN of God’s primary school in Kilkenny city will lose three teachers next summer as a result of cutbacks approved in last week’s Budget.

Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, proposed the abolition of the Teacher Supply Panel scheme last week as part of his package to cut €4bn in expenditure from the public purses.

The approval of the Budget measures by the Dáil means that the programme will be cut with effect from next September – meaning that the all-girls’ primary school on Upper New Street will lose three teachers over the summer break.

The Teacher Supply Panel pilot project operated in four areas around the country, including Kilkenny City. The three teachers were deployed as substitute teachers elsewhere in the county when required, and operated as supplementary teachers within St John of God’s at other times.

The withdrawal of the Panel scheme means that the three substitute teachers will now be assigned elsewhere next year.

Rita Holohan, Principal of St John of God’s, told the Kilkenny People that the “safety and welfare of Kilkenny schoolchildren to axe the substitute teacher service,” explaining that as a result of the pilot scheme, Kilkenny was one of the few areas in the country where substitute teachers were fully qualified and had received Garda clearance to work with children.

Holohan also revealed that the teachers were almost always in demand, and remarked that only on rare occasions would a teacher on the panel be available for assignment within the school.

“Now the government will scrap this arrangement,” Holohan continued. “Schools who are forced to replace teachers at short notice will be at risk of employing people who are not vetted, or whose qualifications are not assessed.

“Every other country in Europe has a proper national teacher supply system… Fianna Fáil and the Green Party must reverse this measure immediately.”

INTO’s local spokesperson, Joe McKeown, expressed the union’s anger with the news, describing the move as “short-sighted”, and one “that will save very little if any money, and which clearly demonstrates that the Government does not put children first.”

Commenting on other Budget cutbacks, including the deduction to teachers’ wages, McKeown said that teachers felt “singled out” by the cuts, elaborating that “a teacher earning €36,000 per year will lose €1,800 per year, while someone working in the public sector earning €100,000 a year will lose nothing. Quite simply, teacher feel this is unfair.”

McKeown also said that industrial action on the part of teachers was inevitable, confirming that the union “will embark on a campaign of some form of industrial action in the New Year.” INTO members voted to organise three days of strike action in recent weeks, and used one of these days as part of ICTU’s national strike on November 24.

“We are now in a very serious situation,” concluded McKeown. “Teachers don’t trust the Government, and don’t believe they can enter negotiations with them.”

Borough Council blocks proposal to reduce commercial rates

THE MEMBERS OF Kilkenny Borough Council have agreed to allocate a total of €70,000 for the development of The Closh park, opposite Kilkenny Fire Station, to include the eventual provision of a skate park for the city.

However, despite a late increase to the Council’s income for the coming calendar year, the Council voted against a Fianna Fáil proposal to reduce commercial rates by 2%, intended to assist local businesses in the current economic climate.

The budget arrangements were made at the Council’s annual Budget Meeting on Monday night where County & City Manager, Joe Crockett, had earlier announced that the Council’s project funding for 2010 had been increased by almost €133,000.

The surprise increase in funding came as a result of moderate increases to the Local Government Fund allocation and the County Charge, both of which were proposed in last week’s national Budget by Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan.

The Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil groups on the Council each proposed packages on how to spend the additional €132,785 that had been assigned to the Council to spend next year.

The Fine Gael package, which was ultimately adopted by a majority of eight votes to four, assigned €20,000 for the establishment of a new Tidy Towns Committee, details of which would be finalised in the New Year, as well as a further €10,000 to the upkeep of the Watergate Theatre and €20,000 for works on the restoration and upkeep of the Tholsel basement.

€14,500 was also set aside for increased tourism promotion under the package approved by the members, while the development of The Closh would be allocated a further €20,000 on top of the €50,000 earlier assigned to the project.

Fianna Fáil’s alternative proposal included a reduction in commercial rates of 2 per cent – a move that would have saved local businesses almost €125,000 in 2010 – and a potential donation of €10,000 to the City Library to fund the purchase of books and periodicals for the coming year. The package, formally proposed by Cllr Joe Reidy, also intended to allocate €10,000 to a parking fund intended to stimulate city centre shopping, and outlined a €2,000 donation to the Carlow-Kilkenny Drugs Taskforce.

The Fianna Fáil proposals also included a €25,000 allocation for a Kilkenny ‘Christmas Festival’ next winter, which Cllr Reidy envisaged as including a Christmas Market and ice-skating rink at Canal Square, and also featuring a public event where the city’s Christmas lights would be turned on in late November.

The alternative package, which would have seen the Council’s takings reduced by over €186,000, was to be part-funded by €46,000 of unclaimed expenses by the Borough Council members from the 2009 year.

The total overall budget, as approved with Fine Gael’s amendments, notably allocated €500,000 for improvements to the facades of High Street, John Street, and Rose Inn Street in the city, as well as €55,000 for the provision of ‘variable messaging signage’. The measures form part of the Borough Council’s overall €4m Mobility Management Plan.

Elsewhere, €300,000 was set aside as a continuing provision for The Watershed swimming pool, €135,000 was assigned for supporting the local Arts scene, and €100,000 was provided for the relocation of the new Butler Gallery.

Presenting the draft budget, Crockett said the budget’s provisions were influenced by a number of major points, including the need to improve accessibility and mobility in the city centre, the continuation of an investment package in the city centre, the provision of efficient local services and the maintenance of local employment.

City Mayor, Cllr Malcolm Noonan (Green Party), commended the approved Budget and said it included a wide scope of projects which would be the envy of other local authorities in Ireland.

Smoky coal a red hot issue in the city

UNSCRUPULOUS rogue operators in Kilkenny are openly flaunting the city’s ban on the sale of bituminous ‘smoky’ coal undermining legitimate traders, it was alleged at the monthly meeting of Kilkenny Borough Council on Monday night.

Cllr Joe Malone (Fianna Fáil) claimed that some illegal operators had exploited the downturn in the economy by selling imported coal, mostly sourced from Poland, from trucks on the sides of roads leading into the city. The coal being sold was cheaper than the market value of the legitimate smokeless coal, and was undercutting legitimate local traders, he said.

Cllr Malone said that these traders were pouncing on the vulnerable and uninformed, who might be deceived into buying the coal without realising that it was of the variety banned by the Council.

He also explained that while legitimate local traders were required to seek proof of address before selling ‘smoky’ coal to residents from outside the city, sellers on roadsides were not doing so, and were happily supplying the banned coal to city residents, despite the embargo on selling such products within the city.

His motion to condemn such practices were supported by party colleagues Cllrs Andrew McGuinness and John Coonan. Cllr McGuinness condemned those who knowingly engaged in the sale of bituminous coal, commenting that he had seen some people openly advertising the sale of imported coal, in open violation of the ban. Cllr Coonan encouraged local residents who encountered local traders openly flouting the ban in such ways to confront them about the legality of their actions.

Cllr Seán Ó hArgáin (Labour) said there was an important environmental and public health impact to the city’s ban on smoky coals. He appealed to legitimate local suppliers to continue to abide by the ban, and asked the Borough Council to liaise with the Environmental Section of Kilkenny County Council in ensuring that banned products were not being sold in the city.

Town Clerk, Brian Tyrrell, clarified that it was the role of the Borough Council to supervise the stocking of local fuel suppliers and said that, having researched the matter, he believed it to be an offence to sell smoky coal to people resident within the city boundaries, but not to burn the coal itself.

The motion was carried unanimously.

Budget 2010: Poverty action group condemn Widows’ Pension cuts

KILKENNY’S Prevent Poverty Action Group (PPAG) has condemned the decision to cut the Widows’ Pension in last week’s Budget.

Minister Brian Lenihan proposed a cut of 8% in the Widows’ and Widowers’ pension, as part of widespread cuts in the country’s social welfare payments.

Chairperson and founder of the PPAG, Teresa Mullen, was strongly critical of the decision, which she felt targeted some of the most vulnerable in Irish society.

“There’s been huge increases in some payments in the past number of years, and that’s going to the wealthiest in the country. Whether we like it or not, that’s social welfare and a huge sum of it is going to the very wealthiest. But now, even widows have had to take a cut in their benefit… I’ve always made the point that widows have been the least taken care of, of all sections of society.”

Unchanged
Mullen explained that between 1994 and 2007, the allowance paid to widows for each dependent child remained unchanged, in spite of the rampant inflation at the time. “In 1994 the allowance was £17, and in 2007 it was still €22. It had just €2 added to it last year, and €2 the year before.

“Everyone else in the state got an increase by way of their weekly income in whatever way, except for those people. The widow got an increase in her own allowance but absolutely nothing in the dependence allowance for her children.”

Mullen rejected suggestions that increases in Child Benefit would have allowed for this. “You could say that children’s allowance would account for it in some way, but that’s nonsense because hat went to everyone in the country, irrespective of income.”

However, Mullen welcomed the decision not to cut the state pension paid to senior citizens, and the massive cuts to public sector pay packets, which she felt were measures tantamount to scrapping the controversial benchmarking scheme.

“I would regard that as a positive thing; we said in our pre-Budget submission that benchmarking has done the most damage to the country,” she said. “It created high prices as well as everything else, and those not involved were hit the hardest.

“Benchmarking was done on behalf of the most secure group in the country… the entire country had to pay for it, but the safest half of it benefited. Benchmarking might now be gone, but the state is still obliged to pay massive pensions to these people that it now can’t afford, so the rest of us are left to pay for it.”

Criticism
The group also extended criticism to the new 50c prescription charge for medical card holders, which it felt did not tackle the root problem of prescription abuse. There was a need to tackle the culture of “firing prescriptions out instead of actually trying to solve problems”, according to Mullen, and the new charge would result in the welfare recipient being out of pocket rather than addressing the bigger issue of prescriptions being freely handed out without consideration of a patient’s longer-term welfare or the cost to the State.

PPAG was founded in 1995 and is a local group made up solely of welfare recipients based in Co Kilkenny, with most of its members being pensioners or widows. It considers itself to speak from the position of, rather than on behalf of, those most vulnerable in society, and has been heavily critical of groups such as CORI who it claims cannot speak “from a position of need and vulnerability.”

Budget 2010: ‘Worst is yet to come’, says local SIPTU branch

THE COUNTRY’S largest trade union, SIPTU, have attacked the Budget’s proposals to massively cut the wages of public servants.

Speaking to the Kilkenny People, SIPTU’s Kilkenny branch organiser, Denis Hynes, said that the union was “very disappointed, to put it mildly” and heavily criticised local TDs and the Government for voting in favour of “absolutely disgraceful” cuts.

“I don’t think the Budget was fair; I’m still waiting for an announcement from [local Fianna Fáil TD] John McGuinness to say he had got what he wanted. I think that the public sector will remember the Budget on General Election day when it comes – sooner rather than later – and fell that people in the public sector, especially those left on €30,000 a year can afford that kind of a hit in income.

“That the ministers and TDs in the Dáil – and our own TDs in Kilkenny – could see that someone serving as a Home Help assistant is paying more, percentage-wise, than the TDs themselves is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.

Ongoing disputes
Asked how the union’s public sector members were likely to respond to the pay cuts, Hynes said the immediate reaction was one of anger, and that there was “no doubt in my mind that the reaction will be one of industrial unrest throughout 2010. I’d be reasonably confident that we’d be facing a year of ongoing disputes.

“This isn’t a case of workers considering strike action in 2010 for the sake of it; this is a case where the job is no good any more. There’s a 12 per cent pay cut being imposed on workers, not to mention levies, and there’s already a cut in overtime. Workers in the public sector are looking at a loss of about 25 per cent.”

Hynes was adamant that public sector workers been unfairly treated under the Budget measures. “If you walk down the street in Kilkenny and meet publicans or businesspeople – and they’ve all had tough times – they’ll be reasonably satisfied with the Budget. If you meet a public sector worker – a nurse, a support staff member, a fireman – they’ll tell you they’re in real financial trouble.”

Referring to the recent breakdown in negotiations between the government and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on a national pay deal, Hynes remarked, “I think that the Government lost out on a golden opportunity in doing a deal with the Unions to try and bridge 2010. As would be agreed and said already by public workers, there’s already been a saving of almost €2.5bn this year to date in the public sector because of pay freezes, the new pension levy, and the moratorium on new hiring.”

Hynes was also critical of what he saw as a tokenistic attempt by the Government to solicit money from Irish expatriates by asking them to contribute €200,000 per year in order to retain their Irish passports. “It’s disgraceful. They’re being asked to pay if they can, not if they will. It’s a really poor response when you look at the millions made in this country already, and how it’s all been invested in foreign shores.

Everything in this country is done to ensure that we don’t upset the wealthy,” Healy concluded. “What’s happening is that we’re dealing with a ticking bomb. Services are going to be hugely affected in 2010… I think that the worst is yet to come.”

Budget 2010: Publicans foresee bleak 2010 for ‘keeping High Street alive’

PUBLICANS in Kilkenny have welcomed the moves to cut excise duty on alcohol proposed in last week’s Budget, but believe that cuts in social welfare and pay for public servants mean tough times ahead for high street traders.

Pat Crotty, a former Fine Gael member of Kilkenny Borough Council and proprietor of Paris Texas Café and Bar on High Street in the city, reacted with mixed emotions the various measures outlined in the Budget delivered by Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, last week.

“I suppose if you accept the initial premise of needing to save €4bn, then they did it, I would have problems with the way they did it,” said Crotty, a former chairperson of the Borough Council. “But if you take €4bn out of the economy, the disposable end of it simply won’t be there next year. It’s not just publicans – every retailer who depends on people coming in their door to spend money, simply won’t have it.”

Crotty welcomed the Government’s move to cut 12c of duty from the price of a pint, commenting that “anything that is a help has to be welcomed… If it gives people a sense that they can get value, it might give them the confidence to come out and enjoy themselves the odd time.”

However, he expressed disappointment that the Budget did not deal with what he called the “disparity” of operating costs incurred by pubs when compared to rival off-licences.

“The difference to me is that the cost of the licence [to sell alcohol] I pay to the Government is based on my turnover – whereas the off-licence pays a flat fee, while they’re the ones making the higher turnover. It’s an extraordinarily unfair advantage.

“None of us have a problem obeying the law,” Crotty added. “It’s an unfair advantage that we can’t fix, and the Government have to, but they simply don’t have the mind to do it.”

Asked if there were other measures he felt the Budget could have taken to rescue the economy, Crotty affirmed the need for the Government to encourage great footfall on the streets every day.

“One thing I see missing from the Budget is a stimulus. There are two levels of stimulus – one for the customer and one for business – but there’s been nothing extraordinary done to cause people to have confidence.

“If the Minister had brought VAT down by six per cent to 15, to compete with the UK, people might have seen value and thought they could afford to shop in the local town or city, and build confidence. I know a six per cent cut would have cost €6bn, but we’re at the point of diminishing returns. The small cut will be a boost for December, but I hate to think how the situation might look at the end of January or February.”

Crotty also argued the need for the Government to stimulate the borrowing power of small businesses. “I would have liked to see the Government do what’s being done in other countries, where it acts as a part-guarantor for new business. It’s a no-brainer. It’s done in other countries and is accepted as a way to stimulate business growth. If banks are prudent, in terms of who they give loans to, there’s no risk and it costs nothing. The Government would then be a beneficiary of the growth that would be caused.”

Crotty concluded by conceding that no matter what measures may have been proposed in the budget, cutting €4bn from the public purse would inevitably impact on the retail and hospitality sectors. The former councillor painted a bleak picture for local business: “A lot of people in Kilkenny are in the public service and will lose money. Many more are in receipt of social welfare, and they too will lose money. Money taken out of circulation means less coming in the door.

“If there’s less money in pockets, it means there’s less in the shops, which means a bleak 2010 in terms of keeping the High Street alive.”

Budget 2010: McGuinness defends Budget, but Phelan fears mass emigration

FIANNA FÁIL TD for Carlow-Kilkenny John McGuinness has defended thesevere cuts to social welfare and public sector pay to be introduced following last week’s Budget. McGuinness did, however, express regret that the Budget did not contain a greater stimulus package for job creation.

The Kilkenny city-based politician conceded that the Budget was a “very difficult one” for the Government, “but one it couldn’t avoid in terms of stabilising the public finances. It was a budget that asked everyone, including those on social welfare, to make a contribution – and hopefully this will speed up the process of recovery.

“The Budget was difficult on everyone and not just the public sector, it was tough on social welfare recipients too,” the Deputy said. “I think the electorate would probably be generally upset for any budget of this kind, but on balance it was about getting the country back into order again. I think the public will see the sense in what we have done, if things begin to come right again.”

Deputy McGuinness expressed some satisfaction with the manner in which the public sector pay cuts were being applied, telling the Kilkenny People that he was “particularly pleased that they’ve tackled the rates of pay at the top levels and applied a higher percentage of deduction.”

He was also pleased with the attempts to earn revenue from Irish people living abroad, but earning more than €1m per year, explaining that he had “advocated this from the start – to start from the top down. From the state of our economy I think that was needed to be done.”

While last week’s wholesale cuts in public service pay packets immediately reversed many of the gains made by those workers under the benchmarking process, McGuinness felt that workers in the public and private sectors needed to be treated equally. “Benchmarking was about comparing the public and private sectors – and in the public sector we now have a 12.5% rate of unemployment,” he said.

“In the good times it connected public workers to [the conditions of] the private sector, and in the bad times it has to do the same.”

In general, Deputy McGuinness believed that the cost-cutting measures employed by the Government have been fair and treated all sectors of society fairly equally, and rejected any notion that the Budget had been particularly tough on any individual sector.

“The Budget has asked everyone to help out – people from all sectors have had to take cuts, from between four and 25 per cent. Everyone’s been asked to make a contribution to a greater or lesser degree. There isn’t any one sector that’s had it tougher than others.”

Fine Gael senator John Paul Phelan has condemned what he saw as Government inaction in helping the young unemployed, which he fears will trigger a new wave of mass emigration.

“There are 2,785 young people under 25 out of work in Carlow and Kilkenny. The Budget did little or nothing to offer them any glimmer of hope. A new wave of emigration is upon us – we will once again be exporting our brightest and our best,” said the senator.

“This prospect looms large over countless families gathering together for Christmas this year. It is not only bad for our young people; it is also heartbreaking for their families, their communities, for GAA and soccer clubs and the country at large.”

Senator Phelan felt the Government were “turning a blind eye to youth unemployment, making little or no effort to stimulate job creation, while slashing jobseekers’ payments to those aged under 25. Its message to young people is clear: leave Ireland.” Senator Phelan argued that while Fine Gael had proposed a series of measures to address the issues of youth unemployment, the Government had ignored them “and has failed to replace them with anything positive themselves. Economic recovery requires innovative leadership, not wishful thinking from a Government blatantly out of touch with reality.”

Party colleague Phil Hogan described the cuts as a “brutal blow” and said Fine Gael would be proposing amendments to the Finance Bill this week.

Deputy McGuinness, however, insisted that the Budget’s priority had to be “stabilising the economy”, but conceded that he would have liked to see a “reform of politics, and of how we do business [in the Oireachtas]”. He also argued the case to give a “greater opportunity” to Ireland’s talented public servants to lead the country out of the current economic problems.

“The public sector is packed with good people,” he explained, “and we need to explore ways of allowing them share their talents.”