Rampant property speculation was a gamble that didn’t pay off

THE Government did not do as much as it should have in providing proper leadership. It cut pensions to sitting ministers and deputies, but it did nothing about the untouched expenses. Yet they did more than I expected. That was not a compliment; if that is a compliment, it was simply that they are not as obtuse as I feared. They have learned something from their recent mistakes.

Let’s face it, there are none so stupid as those who don’t learn from their mistakes. With all the pre-budget hype it seemed like they were going to attack the old reliables by putting up the taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan admitted recently that the increase in VAT in last October’s budget had been a disaster, because it drove €700 million worth of business across the border. Surely that should have been enough to persuade him and his colleagues of the need to reverse the previous VAT increase.