In preparing his fourth Budget, Mr McCreevy faced the prospect of a decelerating economy and slowing momentum in tax revenues.
The great driver of recent expansion has been the sharp rise in labour supply. This has begun to slow and the recent strength of our partner economies, the US in particular, is also waning. The great boom in tax revenue is due to ease, and a cautious approach to management of public finances would have been timely.
Instead, the Minister has provided for spending growth of more than 10 per cent, before allowance is made for future concessions to teachers and other groups. There is some innovative accounting to massage spending downwards. Interest of £400 million (€507.9 million) is being "paid" by something called the Capital Services Redemption Account. The increase in Exchequer capital spending is no less than 24.9 per cent. If the economy grows as projected - an annual average of 7 per cent per for three years - the sums may add up. But if labour supply shortage and a global slowdown bring growth back from the stratosphere, this Budget will look imprudent.
There are some hidden tax increases, as in previous Budgets, an example being the rise in employers' PRSI burdens. Tax revenue will rise 12 per cent as a result. The Minister has bowed to the hauliers and cut diesel duty substantially - when crude oil prices are falling, as is the dollar in which they are denominated. The OPEC cartel gains greater pricing power when governments weaken in this way, and the cut in VAT, which could have been two percentage points, is only one percentage point as a result.
Finally, a rare victory for the car-commuting professional classes. There is not a whisper about benefit-in-kind tax on free car-parking spaces, threatened with conviction in Mr McCreevy's two previous Budgets.
Colm McCarthy is managing director of DKM economic consultants.