Budget 2014 - Austerity cannot be masked

When Finance Minister Michael Noonan and his sidekick Brendan Howlin took to the stage in the Dáil yesterday, it was expected that their double shuffle would mask the effects of a budget that will only emerge in the coming months.

Last year, it was mothers and young families who faced the onslaught of cuts and increased taxes. While child benefit has been left untouched this time round, it is the old who will suffer most from Ireland’s seventh austerity budget in a row. In coalition, Fine Gael now has the distinction of presiding over the most austere budgets in the history of the State.

It is hard to imagine how the Taoiseach can characterise this death by 1,000 cuts as anything other than an attack on our most fragile and vulnerable sections of society, notwithstanding elements that will assist growth and prosperity.