Mensajepor Mr_Baca » Lun Dic 06, 2010 3:32 pm
J UPDATE: Ireland's Budget Receives Support Of Independent
06-Dec-2010
(Adds detail)
By Quentin Fottrell and Ainsley Thomson
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRESDUBLIN (Dow Jones)--Ireland's struggling Fianna Fail-led government received a boost Monday after Independent lawmaker Michael Lowry said he will vote to support the government's 2011 budget in the national interest.
The Fianna Fail/Green Party coalition needs a two-seat parliamentary majority with Lowry and another Independent lawmaker, Jackie Healy-Rae, to pass the budget. Political commentators expect Healy-Rae to follow suit.
"I believe we have no alternative but to honor and comply with the budgetary parameters as set out in the agreement with the European Union/International Monetary Fund," Lowry said.
He said people who earn most should take the burden of taxation measures, but said he was ultimately "duty-bound" to support the budget. "The consequences of not passing the budget would be disastrous for Ireland."
"In this instance, I am making a hard decision and I make it, in what I see, are in the interests of the Irish people," he told reporters in a statement. He said he will put his country before his constituency.
The government has committed to cuts totaling EUR6 billion next year and EUR15 over four years as part of its EUR67.5 billion European Union/IMF rescue package. Ireland will contribute EUR17.5 billion. Earlier Monday, Healy-Rae told Kerry Radio in his home county that he had received assurance from Prime Minister Brian Cowen that Kenmare would receive a hospital and Tralee would get a motorway by-pass.
Healy-Rae said, "I've that money guaranteed from the man's [Brian Cowen's] own lips for that hospital...I am told the money will come for Tralee's bypass and that's being God's honest."
But Healy-Rae, who is considered a populist politician, insisted that he had yet to decide whether he would support the budget: "I haven't made up my mind what I'm going to do yet."
Lucinda Creighton, a member of the opposition Fine Gael party, has said she would consider abstaining if Lowry and Healy-Rae voted against the budget, though Fine Gael has said she was speaking in a personal capacity.
There are other Independent lawmakers not included in the government's majority who have yet to decide. Finian McGrath told Dow Jones Newswires, "I haven't made up my mind yet and won't until I see the details of the budget."
Speaking to reporters earlier Monday, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said he was confident that the budget will pass.
"It's important for the country that that would happen," he said.
Martin acknowledged the severity of the budget and that every vote will be crucially important. "The government is very conscious of that and is very anxious for the sake of country to get the budget through," he said.
