Noonan: Tougher budget this year

Next December’s budget will be tougher than last year’s because “all the low hanging fruit has been plucked” and the Government still has to make the same level of cutbacks, Michael Noonan has said.

Speaking at the Financial Services Ireland annual lunch yesterday, the finance minister said the economy had come through many tests over the past few years, but the biggest test remained whether the Government could successfully return to the sovereign debt markets.

“We have fulfilled all the conditions of the [EU/IMF bailout] programme. We have drawn down 78% of the available funds and we have implemented 120 measures of the programme. Along with the major fiscal adjustment, there has been a major restructuring of the economy and we have made the economy more competitive to grow in the future. If the test was to meet the 120 measures then we were successful. But the real test of success is getting back on the markets at a reasonable rate.”