Budget 2017: The Brexit-shaped hole in the budget

The government’s defence of its limp budget response to Brexit is that its impact is impossible to predict, but it must come up with a plan

Pedestrians walk past a board displaying the price of euro and US dollars against sterling in central LondonPicture: Getty

It is the greatest economic threat facing the state since the international bailout six years ago, and arguably the biggest foreign policy challenge since independence. Last week’s budget was the state’s first chance to make a detailed policy statement about how to protect the economy from the danger of Britain’s divorce from the European Union.

Three times in the course of his sixth budget speech the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan used the ...