Memorable musings on the budget

As budget speeches go, it was a workaday effort from Finance Minister Michael Noonan to a nation jaded by austerity.

Hardly renowned for theatrics, he delivered his multibillion-euro package of cutbacks and tax hikes with near resignation.

Apart from a flourish of humanity, borrowed from poet and one-time senator WB Yeats, he stuck to his straight-speaking style.

More spirited was Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin, as he detailed the spending cuts. Heckles, if not histrionics, were raised as he took aim at Fianna Fáil.

Quotes of the day:

*“There will be no promissory notes, there will be no Anglo Irish Bank, andthere will be no bank guarantee. Ireland will have been handed back her purse.” — Mr Noonan on a post- bailout Ireland.

*“The last six years has left both emotional and physical scars on thiscountry.” — Mr Howlin on measures to deal with the housing crisis.

*“Even the dead are not safe from this Government” — Michael McGrath,Fianna Fáil finance spokes- man, on the cuts to the bereavement grants.

*“As WB Yeats said in Easter 1916, ‘too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart’. I know that there is a view that the consolidation should go further, but people have already made many sacrifices.” — Mr Noonan, claiming the budget could have been worse.

*“What have you got against young mothers?” — Mr McGrath to the financeminister on maternity benefits cuts.

*“We’ve just been told we can be seen from space for the first time with all the hi-vis jackets.” — A protester outside Leinster House on the number of gardaí compared to the low turnout of demonstrators.

*“You are pitting grandparent against grandchild to make pitiful savings andpeople can see through it.” — Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin finance spokesman.

*“This is a generation that if it doesn’t have, it doesn’t spend.” — Eamon Timmins, of Age Action.