Irish Prime Minister Says Budget Plans Are Already in Place

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Source: The New York Times

ARRANMORE ISLAND — As Irish and European officials engaged in tense talks over the weekend on terms of a multibillion dollar rescue package, Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen asserted that the country’s low corporate tax rate and four-year plan to reduce the budget would not be substantially changed.

“Unlike other countries, we have already made our adjustments,” Mr. Cowen said on Saturday, speaking to a small group of reporters and voters on this desolate island of 500 or so people just off the northern coast of Ireland. “Our tax rate is 12.5 percent and it is transparent and it is a matter for the national government.”

However, in at a NATO meeting in Lisbon, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said he could not imagine that Ireland wouldn’t choose to raise its corporate tax rate. But he said that would not be a condition of any bailout.

Mr. Cowen is facing stiff political pressure from opposing parties who say that his decision in 2008 to guarantee bank liabilities jeopardized the country’s fiscal future. Campaigning for the local Fianna Fail candidate in an upcoming election, Mr. Cowen flew here Friday night while his finance minister Brian Lenihan led negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission back in Dublin.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/business/global/21debt.html