“The market obviously doesn’t believe the position at the moment”

Andy may fear for the children and idealists, but Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s main concern, as previously acknowledged by his Finance minister, is re-establishing lost international market confidence. And while a national consensus may prove elusive, despite the re-assurances of EU Commissioner Olli Rehn, those markets have given their initial verdict on the Irish Government’s judgement that a total cut of €15 billion is needed over four years to reduce the budget deficit to 3 per cent by 2014.  The iol report has …

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NI Finance Minister: “they are probably delaying or seeking to delay the whole process of trying to make a budget.”

The BBC reports Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, criticism of today’s protest in Belfast by the trade unions. …Mr Wilson said unions were “giving false hope to people that somehow or other by holding placards they can avoid these financial choices”. He also accused the unions of using the cuts to gain political clout. “In doing so, they are probably delaying or seeking to delay the whole process of trying to make a budget.” And the NI Executive’s ‘protest’, …

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‘Comrade Newton’ ignores the fact NI’s best jobs are in the public sector

To we are offering Peter Bunting, Assistant General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions a platform to respond to Newton Emeron’s piece ‘Days of whine and roses maybe over, Comrade’ in yesterday’s Irish News. His argument was, briefly, that public sector wages should be brought down towards the same level as those in the private sector.

Ritchie/Attwood’s ministerial failure a blessing in disguise?

With the announcement of spending cuts of £128m from the Assembly’s budget, Sammy Wilson had stated his intention to offset the loses in part with Departmental underspends. “We knew [this] was coming down the line and when departments surrender money through the year, as inevitably they do, we can maybe use some of that to offset these cuts that have been imposed on us,” Mr Wilson said. Now DSD has declared a halt to plans to develop the Donegall Street …

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