Tough budget decisions mean income tax is only feasible target

THE budget predictions merry go round, like Christmas, comes earlier each year. A few years ago budget day was moved to early December.

As a result, the traditional summer political and media silly season is now dominated by pre-budget speculation. This speculation has come even earlier this year, partly because Charlie McCreevy and his government colleagues were holed up all day yesterday for their last bout of budget planning before the summer cabinet recess.

One document informing their discussion was the Economic and Social Research Institute's Mid Term Economic Review for 2002-2009 which was published last Monday. The Mid Term Review concluded, among other things, that our current low rate of economic growth is a temporary phenomenon.