Following Minister Lenihan’s speech last week on the next Budget, this post takes stock of the latest estimates of receipts and expenditure and puts the progress so far in reducing the budget deficit in a ten-year perspective. It then outlines eight things that need to happen over the coming five years, in order to get the deficit back down under 4%.
This post scores Budget 2010 against three criteria: closing the budget deficit, preserving public services and managing expectations. While scoring very well on the first two, principally because the nettle of public sector pay was grasped, expectations about taxes and future Budgets were not properly managed, which may cause trouble down the line.
This post outlines some key considerations in Ireland’s Budget 2010, including the scale of the challenge the government faces, the imperative to cut spending, the growing role of national debt, capital expenditure and over-reliance on income taxes. It also makes some recommendations for measures in relation to tax credits, property tax and VAT.
