Budget process in the hands of the few

THERE’S no nice way of putting this, but next Wednesday’s budget is going to be a clanger.

The best that can be hoped for is that it will be devised with a level of fairness that has so far been absent from the workings of this Government.

Some of the details have already been leaked. The property tax looks like coming in at 0.2% of the value of a house. That would imply that a figure of €300-€350 will be payable for the average home. That’s bad, but it could be a lot worse.