The Taoiseach is adamant that Government will not sit back and allow difficult decisions to be deferred.

Brian Cowen’s been speaking as part of a Fianna Fail webcast in which he warned that as tough as the forthcoming budget will be – even further adjustments are needed.

The Fianna Fail leader said that borrowing 500 million euro a week to run the country is not an option anymore.

Mr Cowen says such tough decisions are in every one’s interest.

“We don’t want to see a period of stagnation. We saw that in the past in the 80s when difficult decisions were deferred” he said.

“That’s not the intention of the government to allow that to happen”.

“The adjustments we’ve made this year will be followed along with another budget – but people need to know that taking these corrections now enables us to bring growth back into the economy, recreate employment and confidence and ensure that we can come back to what we have achieved before” he added.

Meanwhile, The Taoiseach has said protests by public service workers will not resolve our economic problems.

In a speech in Dublin this morning, Brian Cowen said tough choices face us all and the public service must lead by example

He said cuts in the public service pay bill are unavoidable.

Mr Cowen’s comments come less than 24 hours ahead of public sector protests planned in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Dundalk as well as the Taoiseach’s constituency in Tullamore.