SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor has strongly criticised the ESRI for proposing further cuts in the Budget. He said it was incredible that “in the same week as the Central Bank reported a 26 per cent increase in distressed mortgages over the past year and a day after the Central Statistics Office reports that the Live Register continues to rise inexorably, the Economic and Social research Institute is calling for intensification of the austerity programme beyond even the draconian provisions of the EU/ECB/IMF plan, which has already inflicted so much misery on our citizens. [Read more…]