JOHN WALSH: Government needs public buy-in to hit deficit target

The Government is 85% of the way though one of the steepest fiscal adjustments ever undertaken by any OECD country.

Reaching the ultimate goal of bringing the fiscal deficit within the 3% of GDP limit by 2015 agreed with the troika largely depends on whether the Government can get the electorate to buy into its policies.

To this end, it faces an extremely difficult balancing act. It has to be fair and, more importantly, it has to be seen to be fair.