Last Friday’s Exchequer figures marked a dismal end to Brian Cowen’s tenure as Minister for Finance, Labour Finance Spokesperson Joan Burton has said.

“The poor revenue performance in today’s release adds to what has been a continuous flow of bad economic news in recent weeks.

“As Mr Cowen leaves the Department of Finance

· Economic growth is at its lowest level since 1988
· The live register is growing by 1600 per week.
· The ESRI consumer confidence index is at its lowest level since the index was invented Retail sales are falling for the first time since 2004
· The CSO construction employment index is down by 11% in the last twelve months
· The cost of living is increasing at 5%
· Four months into the year, and the budgetary arithmetic is already undone, as tax revenues have come in €736m below target.

“This contrasts with the economy that Fianna Fáil inherited in 1997 from a Labour Finance Minister, when GNP was growing at 10%, inflation was 1.5%, the Government broke even for the first time in decades, and the economy was creating 1000 jobs per week.

“Brian Cowen has sought to blame the global economic environment for this mess. The truth is, however, that problems currently being experience in the economy are largely the result of a domestically generated construction boom. Brian Cowen’s failure to curb the growth in house prices, and his mishandling of stamp duty, has contributed to the crisis of confidence in the property market, the loss of jobs in construction, and the falloffs in revenues to an exchequer which was over-reliant on construction activity.

“Labour has put forward concrete proposals to address the economic downturn. It remains to be seen whether Mr Cowen’s successor will be any more competent”.