There were a good few paradoxes in yesterday’s budget among all the spending announcements. It was the biggest giveaway ever, yet nobody was getting the feel-good vibe. The budget involved staggering changes, yet it hardly caused a stir.
And for perhaps the most dramatic budget in living memory (perhaps ever in Ireland) the debate on it was completely lacking in tension or fireworks.
This despite the fact the spending was unreal. That largesse was a recurrent theme in the writing of our leading journalists. Miriam Lord dubbed Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath the Budget boys and said they hoped "they will be The Last of the Big Spenders".
Pat Leahy wrote: "There was €50 million for everyone in the audience, so to speak. There is presumably a list somewhere of budget requests from Ministers that were turned down. But it doesn't appear to be a very long one."
And Cliff Taylor nosed off his analysis with this line: "Go big or go home, as the old saying goes."
Yep, they went big.
As Cliff wrote: “Spending next year will be €87.8 billion, if all the money in a €3.4 billion recovery fund – much of it not yet allocated – is spent. This would be €1.8 billion ahead of this year’s expected outturn, itself swelled by massive Covid-19 spending.
“Facing the extraordinary economic impact of the pandemic, it seemed like the right call. There is real damage now to the fabric of the economy. Spending money now will limit the longer-term damage caused by closed businesses and people slipping into long-term unemployment.”
And that is the key.
An excess of spending, an absence of joy
Everybody realises the peril we face from Covid and Brexit. This money will not liberate. It will allow people who have been caught up in the rip tide of the pandemic to keep treading water until the crisis passes, whenever that might be.
It’s like getting your tank filled with petrol and being told to go on a return journey. When you inquire the half-way point you are told: “We don’t know. It could be Tinahely. It could be Timbuktu.”
As Miriam writes, Pearse Doherty and Mairéad Farrell were among the only ones to find fault, though it’s clear from her piece she had difficulty with his charge that the budget lacked ‘certainty’.
“With a global pandemic in full swing and a dangerous Brexit steaming down the tracks, it would have been easier for the Ministers to spin their words into solid gold and turn them into bracelets than to stand up and promise – never mind provide – certainty.”
I have seen budgets where votes on excise duty and financial instruments that need to be passed by midnight have led to high drama and political high scaffolds and Government TDs going overboard.
There was no such drama last night. Some TDs did protest about the carbon tax and its impact on rural Ireland. There were a few mutterings too about another 50 cent on a pack of cigarettes. But some of it seemed like going through the motions. All the voting had been completed two hours ahead of time.
Many of us who write about politics had looked at the Greens beforehand. Three of the 12 TDs had voted against coalition. One TD had already voted against a Government Bill. Another had abstained. But any chance of a rebellion was quickly snuffed out when all three issued statements welcoming the budget. The giveaway extended to every sector, to every corner. And so the social protections to protect the most vulnerable in society were all there, the poorest, homeless, asylum seekers, the elderly, the disabled, those affected by mental illness.
Best reads
Other pieces worth reading on the budget include Marie O'Halloran's report on the carbon tax vote last night, where the Healy-Raes went on the attack.
Jack Horgan-Jones writes about Michael McGrath's press conference and his indication the State will tackle Covid-caused national debt next year.
Simon Carswell looks at the Brexit component, partiuclarly the contingency funding being earmarked for a bumpy Brexit.
Colm Keena reports on the latest deferral of the meeting between Chief Justice Frank Clarke and Justice Séamus Woulfe (the newest member of the Supreme Court) over the fallout from the Golfgate controversy.
Playbook
The business of the Dáil and the Seanad will be dominated by the budget, with Leaders’ speeches in the Dáil followed by a full debate later on.
The only other business of note is Minister for Education Norma Foley taking oral questions at 10.30am.
The Joint Committee on health will be getting an update on Sláintecare from its executive director, Laura Magahy.
At the Transport Committee, Chris Horn, former chair of the aviation task force, will be among the delegation discussing the crisis in that sector.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys and Minister of State Joe O’Brien will appear before a select committee to discuss the revised estimates on community and rural development.
Elsewhere Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath will be guests on the Today with Claire Byrne show on RTÉ.
There will also be a slew of departmental press conferences today as Ministers outline the various funding measures that apply to their portfolios.
