The myth of the ‘fair’ budget that was anything but fair

ON the day after the budget is delivered, it is customary for some part of it to unravel. The first thing to start coming apart in Brian Lenihan’s plan presented yesterday should be the myth that everyone — rich and poor — will share equal pain.

It was the “fair” budget that was anything but; one filled with empty gestures of cuts for ministers who won’t be around to take them, while loading a burden of suffering on children too small to understand, young people too disillusioned to stay in the country, and welfare recipients too busy worrying about how they will get through this difficult Christmas.

In the last budget speech the myth was that “we have turned the corner”. The year before that, it was our “call to patriotic action” and this year’s big budget myth from Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, was: “Everybody pays, and those who can pay most”.