‘We knew when we went into Government harsh choices lay ahead’
But he said the junior coalition party protected its pre-election commitments as best it could, despite breaking a promise on third-level fees and the children’s allowance.
Announcing cuts for 2012 in the first part of the two-day budget process, the minister said that “no government, whatever its numbers, wants to be the bearer of bad news” but its options were “extremely limited”.
