MEMO/10/611
Brussels, 24 November 2010
Statement by EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli REHN on the Irish 4-year recovery plan
I welcome the continued commitment of the Irish authorities to reducing the deficit to below 3% by 2014. The four-year fiscal plan is an important contribution to the stabilisation of Irish public finances.
The plan strikes a good balance of durable expenditure and revenue measures, with due regard to protecting the least well off. A 2011 budget involving a consolidation effort of €6 bn, would be appropriate, as it would strike a balance between allowing the nascent recovery to strengthen and addressing budgetary challenges in a timely fashion.
I welcome the structural reform commitments included in the plan. These policies encourage exports and a recovery of domestic demand. Implementation of the reforms will thus contribute to the authorities' ambitious fiscal adjustment strategy and a return to fiscal sustainability.
The plan is a sound basis for the negotiations on the fiscal and structural reforms of the policy programme underlying the international financial assistance that Ireland has requested to the EU and the IMF.
