Government must stick to budget targets

The Budget is two months away but already there has been talk of exemptions from commercial rates for creches, increases in the state pension and even a ‘granny grant’.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s officials hoped that getting all the lobby groups to listen to each others’ spending demands at the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle might have a calming effect.

But Donohoe himself has said that even though the economy is ...