Brian Greene Budget comment

WE HAD the An Bord Snip Nua report with it’s proposal for €5.3 billion in cuts. Now we are awaiting the report from the Commission on Taxation. Media “leaks” indicate that its proposals will include a property tax, water charges and a carbon tax and the guarantee of no increase in corporation tax.

Families are already stretched by the impact of the last two budgets, on top of this for many workers in the private sector they have had to endure pay cuts and public servants have had their pay cut through the imposition of the pension levy.

Usually it takes some years for a new government to develop a haughty arrogance toward the people who put it in power. With the current Fine Gael/ Labour Coalition this time span has been shortened to less than one year, something to do no doubt, with its huge majority of sixty in the Dáil.

Can an institution, like a human person, suffer from schizophrenia? Judging by the latest report from the International Monetary Fund it would certainly seem so. The condition involves a ‘breakdown of thought processes’, a ‘deficit of typical emotional responses’ and ‘disorganised thinking and speech.’ All these conditions are evident in the prescriptions by the IMF for the Irish people.