No-drama budget does a little for everyone, but not enough

Paschal Donohoe is a new breed of finance minister who delivered a speech in his typical style: On-message, handled with care, and shot through with the odd folksy flourish, writes Michael Clifford

THIS was a milk and water budget. There was a little something for everybody but not enough to make much of a difference to anybody.

It was a no-drama budget, one which had been combed assiduously for landmines ahead of its delivery. But while it was free of incendiary devices, so too was it devoid of the kind of imagination which the ghosts of finance ministers past delivered with a glint in their eye. It was a Paschal Donohoe budget — on-message, handled with care, and shot through with the odd folksy flourish, most notably his repeated references to what he was doing for all of us in “our country”.