Irish central bank urges rapid details on budget

Ireland's Central Bank governor urged the government on Friday to announce details of its plans for tax increases and spending cuts to deal with the nation's fiscal crisis. Governor Patrick Honohan told a parliamentary finance and public expenditure committee there was a "pressing need" to continue with the correction of the country's fiscal, banking and competitiveness problems. "At this point, it would be beneficial to reduce uncertainty by both deciding on and announcing, in as much detail as possible, the complete set of changes required to Government spending and taxation in order to bring the Government's finances convincingly back onto a sound footing." Honohan told lawmakers were was "no benefit to be gained by delay" and the sooner the government can make more detail available of the composition of the full adjustment package, the better. "The planned pace of the adjustment is the minimum that is required to ensure stability and it is vitally important the targeted reduction of the deficit as a proportion of GDP (gross domestic product) is achieved on or even before schedule," he added. "Progress in this regard, combined with further improvements in the competitiveness of the economy, and a restoration of a functioning banking system, are the cornerstones to recovery," Honohan told lawmakers. On Thursday Finance Minister Michael Noonan told the committee that Ireland's target for a public deficit of 10 percent of GDP this year remained on track and the government was committed to the agreed 2012 target for a deficit of 8.6 percent. Last November, Ireland was forced to seek a rescue of 85 billion euros ($123 billion) from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund as massive debt and deficit problems left the country on the verge of collapse.