Let’s not call this one a ‘giveaway’ budget

The budget parameters adopted by the government are very restrictive

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

The better the economic figures, the bigger the government dilemma. ‘Good exchequer figures a government nightmare.’ How easily we forget. The nightmare forecast used to be that the government was now likely to be in the middle of a second bailout. Now the forecasts are that because there is a general election in the offing the government will fritter away the hard earned recovery.

The government can’t win. If it nods in the ...