The criticism of yesterday's budget from the Opposition parties focused on the Government decisions to take money from the Central Bank and from the Social Insurance Fund.
The Fine Gael finance spokesman, Mr Jim Mitchell, said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy was indulging in "voodoo economics" and that it was a sham budget.
"We are not spending our way out of a recession but into a crisis," said Mr Mitchell last night. The Minister for Finance was in fact borrowing, he said, by taking money from the Central Bank and the Social Insurance Fund.
Labour's finance spokesman Mr Derek McDowell accused the Minister of "cooking the books" At present, he said, Mr McCreevy cannot legally "rip off" €635 million from the Social Insurance Fund.
"He will have to change the law to do so. To maintain the charade that the Minister is not borrowing he has resorted to unprecedented smash and grab measures. This budget is a fraud."
Mr McDowell said the Minister was like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. Deficits may have been prevented artificially this year but they had already been predicted for tomorrow.
For next year the Exchequer deficit is close to €3 billion and is predicted to be €3.7 billion for 2004.
"The Minster's talk about financial management is nonsense. The Minister has used exceptional receipts to pay for his election requirements. He may not want to borrow but he has ensured that his successors will have no option but to do so."
He described what Mr McCreevy had presented as "pure spin" and little else.
"You will notice that good news is measured in euros to sound better while bad news is measured in punts.
It is a cynical act for a Minister who committed himself in advance to using the new currency."
The social welfare benefits in euros sounded far better than they were and came nowhere close to the benchmarking of payments to earnings, he said. He pointed out there was no increase in the eligibility limits for medical cards.
Fine Gael's Mr Mitchell said in the lifetime of this Government hospital waiting lists had soared, and the public has been left wondering where the money had gone. The Minister, he said, had crash-landed an economy which was flying high.
"Through your tampering, your tricking and your tinkering with the housing market, a home for hard-working young people is now unaffordable. Those who did manage to buy a house sit this evening in traffic gridlock contemplating how will they pay their huge mortgages," said Mr Mitchell.
The Green Party said the Budget was an "environmental disaster" and said Mr McCreevy had made little or no use of economic instruments to address the deteriorating environment, traffic gridlock, social housing, pollution and public transport issues.
The Government had completely failed to understand the impending costs of ignoring climate change, said party leader Mr Trevor Sargent.
The Budget widened the gap between spending on roads and public transport, he said.
"There is no sincere and coherent strategy to tackle Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions and our Kyoto commitments. This Government is refusing to introduce the necessary fiscal measures to improve our deteriorating environment," said Mr Sargent.
The Sinn Fein TD Mr Caoimhgh∅n ╙ Caolβin said the Budget was a "inevitable failure" because it was the last desperate gamble by a Government which had squandered the best financial position enjoyed by any government since the foundation of the State.