5 more years of budget pain

FIVE more years of excruciating budgets similar to this year’s lie ahead for the country in an effort to get the state’s finances under control.

The European Commission extended the deadline from four to five years because the task has become so much more difficult than it looked even a few months ago.

Now, instead of having to cut the budget overspend by some €2.5 billion for each of four years, the Department of Finance will have to slash it by an average of €3.4bn for each of five years.