Charlie’s Budget a copout

THERE are three questions that face every finance minister on budget day: who gets the tax breaks, what’s going on the pint and how big is the gaffe?

As sure as there are leaks, speculation and feigned outrage from the opposition benches, every budget day has its blunder which will later have to be reversed, reduced or paid for at the polls.

John Bruton's was the most spectacular when his attempt to tax children's shoes brought down the Fine Gael-Labour coalition in a moment of fiscal firmness turned political suicide in 1982.