BUDGET 2016: Budget will pass EU test, ministers say

Senior Coalition figures are confident the budget will pass a crucial EU test despite financial advisory chiefs warning the spending plans are too expansionary, and that the money should not be injected into the economy.

Both Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said the €1.5bn 2016 budget would fall within EU guidelines even though the same amount is being pumped into spending this year.

Fiscal advisory council chief John McHale had intervened directly after the Coalition’s budget and claimed it had “echoes of mistakes we have made in the past”.