Government figured out how to avoid public rebellion and backbench revolt

IT may seem a paradox, but the Government has had a good week, despite introducing the harshest budget in living memory.

Why? Because they’re still standing, and although it is still too early to rule out trouble, there has been no backbench revolt so far. With the Dáil breaking for recess last Thursday, Brian Cowen and his cabinet have escaped for the Easter. Intact. They could be forgiven for breathing a small sigh of relief. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. What the week showed was that the Government learned from its mistakes last October. At the time, the coalition was only just coming to terms with the devastating collapse in the public finances. It decided to bring forward the December budget by two months in a bid to deal with the crisis. In advance of budget day on October 14, it attempted to sell to the public the message that harsh medicine was required. It didn’t do a very convincing job, however.

Worse still, Brian Cowen failed to sell the message to his own backbenchers. They were aware that “pain” would be administered in the budget, but weren’t made aware of the specifics. And when the specifics came, they were totally unprepared.