A little bit of boom keeps us caught in the old cycle

OUR budgets are nothing like they used to be. We have much to be thankful for in that. But, like an addict that keeps putting off full sobriety until tomorrow, we remain somewhat in la la land if we think we’re fully paid up members of the fiscal reality club.

How could we be when we “discover” only at the end of last week that corporate tax revenues are set to land €1bn or so higher than expected this year. This annual “found it down the back of the sofa” job is directly at odds with the message that Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has been trying to drum home about how we need to go cold turkey on our boom and bust cycles.

If boom and bust is our big addiction, then these billions, found serendipitously here and there each year just in time for the budget, are our methadone programme. It’s just that little bit of remaining boom to keep us in the addiction cycle. Needless to say, we’re told this is a one-off and we won’t have it next year, but that just feels as if we’re all going through the motions of a pretence.