Public sector pay-off limits budget options

It’s coming into the business end of the budget process. In the coming weeks, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan must finalise his tax package, weighing the appeals for the changes in the tax code with his responsibility to frame the overall budgetary context.

Noonan has repeatedly insisted that he will stick to both the budget parameters outlined in the spring statement and so exceed Ireland’s deficit reduction targets.

He is right. For all ...