Noonan: No more hardship than is needed

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said getting the deficit reduction target below 5.1% of GDP in the budget will not cause any unnecessary hardship for households.

Mr Noonan said the final budgetary adjustment figure will be whatever is necessary to exit the bailout programme and that the public will be told on Budget Day.

Fine Gael and Labour have consistently said they would not cause any more hardship than was necessary, but asked whether beating the 5.1% target would cause further difficulties for households, Mr Noonan said that exiting the programme was the Government’s priority.