Eamon Gilmore voiced the fears of many last Friday when he told the Tom Johnson Summer School in Kilkenny that more public expenditure cuts were on the way.
He said that the Government's priorities were to regain Ireland's economic independence, restore the public finances, rebuild global reputation, and prioritise jobs and growth. But he warned that in order to do this, further cuts in public expenditure could be expected.
He pointed out that at the end of the process, the country should have “a leaner and reformed public service that looks to the future with confidence”.
He added that the Government would not succeed in regaining economic sovereignty and in “fixing what is broken in our country if every single spending cut and every single reform is resisted”.
He concluded that even if Ireland did not have to “fix” its public finances, the world is changing and public services have to change with it.
