Ireland needs to cut spending in the budget for next year in order to ensure the country's very survival, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said today.

Lenihan reiterated he needed to find 4 billion euros of savings in the December 9 budget for 2010 just to stabilise the deficit at 12 percent of gross domestic product next year, already four times the level allowed by the European Union.

Lenihan has already presented two emergency budgets in little over a year, so far mostly focused on taxation.

"Had we not taken this action, the deficit would have ballooned to 16-17 percent of GDP -- a level at which the very essence of the country's survival could have been in question," Lenihan wrote in an op-ed piece for the Sunday Business Post.

"The stabilisation of the deficit (next year)... will send a clear signal that our strategy is working and will reassure lenders that we have the capacity to tackle our own difficulties," Lenihan said in the article entitled Survival depends on spending cuts.

Government officials have already warned that failure to control public finances could eventually land Ireland in the hands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which would impose even tougher cuts.

Unions have held several protests and strikes against the government's plans to cut public sector pay and they have threatened a fresh strike for Thursday if an alternative plan was not agreed in coming days.

Lenihan has pledged not to increase any taxes on Dec. 9 apart from a new carbon tax but the junior coalition member Green Party has pushed for additional tax measures.

Lenihan said however the problem lied on the expenditure, not revenue side of the budget.

"(The government) Revenue's share of the GDP is expected to rise over the next few years, even if no other policy actions are taken on the taxation side," he added.

Several newspapers said the government was planning to cut unemployment benefit in the budget, which the Sunday Times said would save up to 150 million euros in the social welfare bill. That would be on top of 250 million-300 million euros savings to come from child benefit, it said.

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