Without growth, Budget 2015 spells trouble

IT IS hard to imagine a budget in the history of the State that attracted more attention from abroad, or at home for that matter.

To put yesterday’s budget in context, this is the first time since 2008 that a finance minister did not address the Dáil to announce either tax increases or spending cuts.

Instead, there was roughly €400m in tax cuts and €600m in spending increases. This is a sharp turnaround from the previous six budgets, which had the cumulative effect of taking close to €30bn or 20% of GDP out of the economy.