Brian Keegan: Budget bills won't be landing any time soon

Budget 2022 will not be a giveaway, but it won't be an austerity budget either

The price of fuel is a political health problem because it is highly visible. Almost every voter has to deal on a regular and recurring basis with diesel and petrol prices at the pumps.

Due to the pandemic, last year's budget was trickier than usual for the Government to frame. As Paschal Donohoe has ruefully observed, pandemics are not routinely built into government planning. 

Budget 2022 again has to take account of the pandemic, apparently now in decline in this country. But when one crisis recedes, others crop up to take its place.