Wide of the mark

YOUR political editor Harry McGee got it spectacularly wrong when he wrote about the Taoiseach’s árd fheis speech (Irish Examiner, March 24).

He didn’t “anticipate any major announcement on tax cuts” or anything that “was going to cost a ball of cash down the line”. Not to worry. All that stuff about ‘slump coalitions’ from Tánaiste Michael McDowell and claims by Social and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan about spendthrift policies that would end up costing billions only applies to the opposition.

The basic rule is if the opposition makes promises, it could bankrupt the country. If the Government makes similar promises, it is prudent management of the economy.