Muslim Community Lobby Ireland is an independent organization established 1st May 2007. Its motto is TO USE THE VOTE RIGHTLY AND TO RAISE THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY AWARNESS WITH THEIR RIGHTS AND TO PROMOTE TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING OF OTHER EXISTING GROUPS. لترشيد استعمال الصوت الانتخابي ولتوعية وتعريف المسلمين بحقوقهم في ايرلندا وان يعيشوا بتفهم للواقع وللجماعات الاخرى الموجودة على الساحة

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, TD and the budget

Next week, I will deliver Budget 2010 to the Dáil. The Government has to make some very difficult choices. Some of the measures we will have to introduce will be unpopular. I am mailing you to tell you why these measures are necessary.

The economic future of this country is on the line. As a small open economy, we are highly dependent on trade and on foreign investment. We need to show the world that we are capable of getting our economy back on track. Our tax revenues are now back at 2003 levels. But since then, our spending on day-to-day services has risen by 70%.

This is unsustainable.

The experience of the 1980s shows us that if we delay in tackling this problem, we will quickly get into a spiral of mounting debt and ever-increasing interest costs. If we live in denial and continue to borrow to try to sustain boom-era lifestyles, we will surely condemn our children to a life less prosperous than ours.

We must not allow this to happen.

We must restore confidence in order to begin the process of economic recovery. The best way to inspire confidence in consumers, in investors, and in the international markets who lend us money, is to show that we can take the necessary steps to get ourselves in order. That is why the Government has committed to reducing the deficit by €4 billion next year.

Next week's Budget will be difficult for everyone. It will be a test of our ability to rise above our current difficulties, to get beyond sectional interests, and to return to the road of economic recovery.

For our party, it will be a test of our ability to put aside short term political considerations and to act, as we have done many times in our history, in the interests of the common good.

I hope you will support us in the difficult decisions we must take to get Ireland back on the road to economic prosperity.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Lenihan, TD
Minister for Finance