Budget 2016: 11 things we ‘learned’ from today’s main event

It was widely leaked, but let’s have recap anyway..

Michael Noonan, minister for finance, and Brendan Howlin, minister for public expenditure, have now finished their speeches, and the post mortems have begun. So what do we know now that we did not this morning?

1) An extra week’s wages for everyone a year:

Noonan has trimmed the bands of the hated universal social charge, resulting in extra money in everyone’s pay packet.

It’s a move that’s been broadly welcomed. Brian Purcell, president ...