Next week, social partnership, under a different name, will be resurrected and restarted writes Gerard Howlin

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has promised that the Coalition will have give-away or ‘expansionary’ budgets for the next five years, if returned to power.

Yesterday’s Spring Economic Statement, while seen as a de facto general election launch for the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, also gives us an idea about how much cash is in the Government’s coffers. 

Even the National Association of Anticlimaxes would have refused the spring statement entry to its ranks for fear of reducing its already disappointing reputation to an all-time low in the minds of right thinking people.