This budget is as fair as it could be, given the current circumstances

THIS Fine Gael-Labour Government came into office nine months ago.

The failure of our predecessors to govern responsibly over the past decade has caused great difficulty to people throughout this country. This colossal failure of governance has also left the new Government, elected with a record mandate, with very limited resources to implement our Programme for Government.

Nevertheless, in our first nine months in office, we have implemented key elements of our Programme for Government: the Jobs Initiative, the restoration of the minimum wage, we have renegotiated the conditions of the bailout, and reduced the interest cost by €10 billion.