GOVERNMENT MINISTERS face cuts in pay of up to €20,000 in tomorrow’s budget, according to senior political sources.
However, a plan to abolish State cars and the the Government jet has been abandoned on security grounds.
A salary cap of €250,000 on public sector employees may affect existing chief executives and even top RTÉ broadcasters.
Cuts in social welfare payments will include a reduction of €8 or €9 in the jobseeker’s allowance, which currently stands at €196.
Child benefit is to be cut by 10 per cent and the airport travel tax is likely to be reduced from €10 down to €2.
Moves were under way to remove State cars and even the Government jet but security considerations arising from the recent incident where Mary Harney was hit with red paint led to a rethink on this issue.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politicslast night, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan confirmed that politicians and Ministers were facing cuts in their pay and pensions.
“All these pensions and salaries will be reduced accordingly on the basis that, although people have forgotten that we did take massive reductions in ministerial pay, as did the Taoiseach last year, all politicians took reductions in their salaries and their expenses on the basis that others had to do with less and they would have to do with less,” she said.
She confirmed the cuts to pay and pensions would not be confined to an incoming government but would also apply to existing benefits.
On the same programme, Fine Gael frontbencher Fergus O’Dowd said his party had been open and transparent with its four-year plan, outlining what it would do. The emphasis would be on job creation and investment to grow the economy. Labour’s finance spokeswoman Joan Burton acknowledged that despite their opposition to some of the budgetary measures it would be legally very difficult to “unpick” the budget if the Finance Bill and social welfare proposals were enacted in law.
“Certain tax and social welfare changes are incorporated in law after the budget and what’s incorporated in law is very difficult to unpick,” she said.
It is widely expected that tax credits and bands will be cut and chief executive of the Irish Taxation Institute Mark Redmond told The Irish Times:"The effect is to broaden the tax base rather than increase the rate of tax."
It is also expected tax relief on pensions will be reduced and Mr Redmond said: “We need to ensure that these changes don’t act as a material disincentive to people to provide for their pensions.”
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said he was voting for the budget and that his criticisms of the Taoiseach were an entirely separate and unrelated matter.
On Mr Cowen’s position, he said: “Clearly he hasn’t the support of the general public or, I believe, the majority of the members of the parliamentary party and maybe he should bring it to a head by putting down a vote of confidence in himself.”
