Budget based on questionable mathematics

There is an increasing acceptance that Budget 2014 was not fully costed by the Department of Finance and the focus is on cuts to health.

The Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, announced cuts to the tax relief scheme for those with private health insurance, but was lacking detail on implementation of the scheme, which resulted in chaos in the health insurance sector.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was recently reported, in a Sunday newspaper explaining to the Fine Gael parliamentary party the origin of the €113m in savings from ‘probity’ on medical cards. According to the newspaper article, €113m is midway between the consultants’ estimates of €60m and €200m, as Enda Kenny’s maths dictate.

The worrying thing is that the halfway figure is €130m.

I have no confidence in this budget, which seems to have been worked out on the back of an envelope, based on erroneous maths and very broad estimates indeed.

Caitriona McClean

Lucan

Co Dublin