A major report that will recommend that up to €5 billion is cut from State spending will be published tomorrow, the Cabinet has decided today after a five-hour discussion about the document that could provoke serious trouble for the Government over the summer.
The so-called An Bord Snip Nua report, chaired by UCD economist, Colm McCarthy, will be published at noon, though the Government has decided that Mr McCarthy should be the one to explain its dramatic contents, lest the Government be blamed for decisions it has not yet taken.
The lengthy Cabinet meeting clearly hightlighed the significance given to the issue by ministers, some of whom, notably Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin feared that the cuts package could damage hopes of getting a Yes vote in the October Lisbon Treaty referendum.
However, Taoiseach Brian Cowen made it clear last night that he favoured publication, arguing that the public must be made aware of the hard choices that will have to be taken if the Exchequer's finances are to be brought back under control by 2013, as has been agreed with the European Commission.
The document will urge that up to 20,000 jobs should be lost in the civil and public service over the next few years, though it recommends that this should not happen by forced redundancy, but rather by failing to fill vacancies left by retirements and departures.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said tonight the report did identify a number of "surplus staff" in the public service, but he could not give that figure before the publication of the report tomorrow.
Mr Lenihan said the public must learn that hard choices are ahead, adding that €4 billion must be cut from spending, or raised in extra tax next year.
"There is no doubt that implementing the scale of adjustments required means that we must all take some very difficult decisions," he said.
The report is split into two volumes: one 80 pages long, and the other of 200 pages.
Speaking ahead of today’s Cabinet meeting, the Taoiseach said: “The country has to bite that bullet. Of course it is going to form part of the public debate. The people need to know what the real choices are.”
So far the circulation of the controversial report has been extremely limited. As of this morning, some Ministers had not yet even seen the sections dealing with their own departments – though a second round of questions from the group offered clues to its likely recommendations.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton today called on the Government to immediately publish the "Bord Snip" report as part of a "comprehensive overhaul" of the public service.
"At this time of crisis, our political system must demonstrate an ability to abandon the ‘soft option’ politics of the last decade and make itself fit for purpose and worthy of the public’s confidence.
“It is essential that the Government now proceeds to publishing the McCarthy proposals for savings in spending and the recommendations of the Commission on Taxation. But these are only elements of what must be a broader and more comprehensive process. We need a forum where there can be substantive engagement on the choices open to us," the party's deputy leader said.
“We cannot continue with a process where decisions are made without proper scrutiny of the choices available, where there are no commitments to delivery at the time that budgets are set, and where there is no consequence for failure.”
