The December budget - Now’s the time to have your say

BECAUSE Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will have to find a way to raise or save billions in the December budget – just five months away – we can expect all sorts of speculation between now and then about how he might reach the commitments made to the EU.

It is difficult not to consider his options without a degree of trepidation though that trepidation deepens at the notion that he will slip into pre-election mode and decide not to confront the consequences of our collective lunacy. It is inevitable that the tax base will be broadened but it is equally inevitable that anyone facing new taxes will be unhappy.

In the Dáil yesterday Taoiseach Brian Cowen, naturally enough, declined to say if there would be a property tax or not. Report after report has advocated some sort of property tax and most European countries already pay such a levy. In our case a property tax would be regarded as a successor to rates but it is unlikely that local authorities could expect to share in the revenue.