Quinn satisfied with education cuts

The Minister for Education says he is satisfied with the cuts he has made in his own department.

Ruairi Quinn was speaking on his way into the penultimate Cabinet meeting ahead of tomorrow's budget.

Minister Quinn said he is satisfied it will be a fair budget and he acknowledged there have been tensions between the coalition partners during the budget process.

"There were tensions but not in a personal or negative way. We are two separate parties with two separate traditions and ideologies. As Michael Noonan commented in today's newspapers, we agreed on 90% of the changes without much difficulty."

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney says tomorrow's budget will not be a popular one.

Coveney says the coalition parties have had to make difficult decisions, coming from different perspectives but they have hammered out a budget that both Fine Gael and Labour can live with.

"This isn't an easy balance and it won't be a popular budget. But we were elected to do a job nearly two years ago to get this country back on track. It will involve some unpopular decisions but hopefully we can communicate why we've made the choice we've made," he said.