THE DANGERS of extending the period of time for the correction of the public finances beyond 2014 were highlighted by the Taoiseach at last night’s weekly meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.
Although the meeting was held in private, sources who were present said deputies Sean Fleming and Ned O’Keeffe both queried the suitability of a four-year period for corrective action.
Mr O’Keeffe expressed serious concern that the length of time allowed was too short and this would damage the economy.
Mr Cowen responded that the international markets were watching developments here and Ireland had to show that it could deal with the problem.
If the four-year period was extended it would send out a wrong message to the markets. It could increase the cost of borrowing to prohibitive levels, according to Mr Cowen.
In the course of a discussion on immigration legislation, Cork TD Noel O’Flynn expressed concern at the amount of public money which was going into the asylum-seeking process. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said, according to sources, that the appeals system for asylum-seekers was excessively protracted with a consequent enormous cost to the taxpayer.
