Government Has No Authority To Pass Budget- O'Brien

Government Has No Authority to Pass Budget

Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan O'Brien has said the government has no authority to pass a budget on 7th December and should resign and call a general election. To take such fundamental decisions on the economy now without consulting the people would be tantamount to treason.

Cllr O'Brien said: "Brian Cowen's statement yesterday evening beggars belief." "This man his lost the confidence of his coalition partners, his own backbenchers and the independents who had been supporting his government. Due to his monumental mismanagement of the economy, the IMF are sitting in the Department of Finance, dictating the terms of our next four budgets. Yet he is determined to cling on to power until he has completed the job of wrecking our economy by intorducing a deflationary budget and tying us into a deal with the EU and IMF." "Brian Cowen and Fianna Fáil no longer have the authority to do this. Their mandate has run out.

They are a shadow government which has lost any shred of respect or trust from the people." "To pass a budget now without an election first would be an act of treason." "The people must be given an oportunity to make themselves heard. There needs to be a general election where voters are offered a real choice - between the failed policies of austerity and a strategy of stimulating job creation and gowth." "There is still time to choose a better way.

The IMF are coming in to bail out the banks and their bondholders, not the state. We can force the bondholders to take their losses and maintain our economic sovereignty. We need an election now before Brian Cowen forces us into an economic straightjacket for the next four years." For further information or comment contact Cllr Jonathan O'Brien @ 085-2133907