Better by far to build a fairer Ireland - Budget tax promises

FINANCE MINISTER Michael Noonan’s steady-as-she-goes warning that next month’s budget will not be the first cousin of a pre-election giveaway is reassuring and entirely appropriate. 

Things may be, once again, getting “boomier” but far too many of our public services are struggling to meet the needs and expectations of contemporary Ireland and it seems likely those expectations and demands will grow and grow. Considerable, extra investment is — and will be — needed.

It is time to rebuild rather than repeat the unsustainable excesses of a decade ago. Those hard and costly lessons suggest it is time to have real ambition around what can be achieved in education, health provision, and social protection rather than fuel another bonfire of the vanities — though that scorching indicator is blazing away. New car sales are at record levels and Spanish tourism authorities expect that as many as 1.5m Irish people will take a holiday in their country next year. It is not being overly Calvinist or dour to suggest that our over-stretched public services and that energetic, expanding consumerism seem incongruous.