Ireland to Detail Budget Plan as ‘Barbarians’ at Gate
This article is for subscribers only.
Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will today lay out a four-year deficit-cutting program that his party may not be around to deliver, as the government’s majority evaporates and a bailout approaches.
Welfare cuts of 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) are among the steps planned to narrow the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by the end of 2014, said a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because the plan is not yet public. The shortfall will be 12 percent of GDP this year, or 32 percent when the costs of a banking rescue are included.