Full cost of Cowenomics finally being revealed

Posted on October 03, 2008 at 10:23 AM

Yesterday evening the exchequer returns were described as calamitous by the Labour Party Deputy Leader and Spokesperson on Finance Joan Burton.

In a fraught week which has seen the Dáil underwriting a banking guarantee of €400 billion, now we learn that Ireland will have a current budget deficit of almost €3 billion, an exchequer deficit of €11.5 billion and a General Government Deficit of 5.5% of a falling GDP.

She said: "The full cost of four years of Cowenomics is finally being revealed. The common thread running through the banking crisis and the fiscal crisis is how Brian Cowen's property boom built up an unsustainable house of cards, which is now collapsing around all of us. The collapse in tax revenues is unprecedented."

There are now just under 80,000 more on the Live Register, in real terms and seasonally adjusted, than there were twelve months ago. The rate of increase in the Live Register has been greater under Brian Cowen than in any other Taoiseach in the history of the state. Given the action taken by the Government this week to address the liquidity problem faced by six very profitable banks, surely the 240,000 on the live register are entitled to some decisive action from the Government to address their plight.

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