Facing the crisis - Budget will fail unless it is equitable

IT IS not an exaggeration to say that the section of today’s cabinet meeting dedicated to preparing next month’s budget will be just a small step in a process more challenging than anything faced by any Irish politician in the past half a century.

That budget must try to create an environment to foster confidence based on new realities; confidence based on a plausible plan to confront excess and a near-fatal dependence on the building sector.

It must, despite being set against a frightening international economic background, try to build confidence by being firm, impartial, equitable and by taking decisions that represent the best interests of the country rather than those of Taoiseach Cowen and Finance Minister Lenihan’s party. They must focus on how our economy might develop over the next decade rather than on the 2009 local and European elections.