Tánaiste says no row over budget among party leaders

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said there was no row at the party leaders meeting about budget promises.

Earlier, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan criticised Coalition colleagues for a number of recent pre-budget promises, saying voters do not always believe commitments which may not be achievable.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics programme, he said: “I think the electorate are a bit cynical of all sorts of promises six months before an election, and we do need to wait until October because we’ll know then better what the circumstances are.

“That’s why I think we need to be careful about promising all sorts of tax cuts, all sorts of spending rises, when there is a constraint, and people know that.

“We have cut taxes and we’ll keep on doing that, but if you add up all the promises it does go beyond what we can afford.”

Speaking at the Fianna Fáil 1916 Commemoration at Arbour Hill, Mr Martin said every political party was entitled to set out its stall not just in terms of the budget, but in relation to the next five years.

He said the Green party did the same yesterday [at its convention] by identifying its key issues for the next five years in advance of and after a general election.

Mr Martin said Fianna Fáil’s budget comments were within last year’s budgetary framework.