The Minister for Finance didn't sound like a happy man. He spent the first few minutes of his Budget speech warning about the disasters that would occur if the social partners didn't stick by the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF). But then he took a deep breath and embarked on the biggest spending spree in Irish history.
The Fianna Fail backbenchers loved it. The roars of applause came in the kind of waves you hear at an international football match. Individualisation of tax bands and the horrors of last year were forgotten as TDs basked in a long litany of giveaways and reforms.
This was the very stuff of populism. Could a general election be far away? The Fianna Fail cow had calved and there was cream to spare for the Progressive Democrats. Mary Harney was given her 2 per cent off the top rate of income tax, while the Soldiers of Destiny settled comfortably for the same amount off the lower rate.
There was a bonus when workers earning less than £144 a week were taken out of the tax net. In social-welfare increases, pensions and childcare payments, the Budget shone. Pensioners would get an extra £10 a week and those over 70 would have free medical cards. The unemployed would get £8 a week more. There would be an increase of £25 a month for each of the first two children, with a £30 rise for others.
It wasn't enough. It could never be enough for some people, but the Government was well ahead of the posse. The smartest stroke of the Budget was probably the tax-free concession of £6,000 offered to property owners who rented rooms in their homes. It could be a godsend for strapped young mortgage-holders and for older citizens.
Michael Noonan played the party-pooper. The Fine Gael spokesman complained the Minister was only giving back money which had already been taken from the workforce, and not all of it at that. That was why he was able to run such a huge Government surplus at the same time. Then, in a switch of tactics, Mr Noonan beat the inflationary bush.
The Minister had produced a booby-trap Budget that could blow our prosperity sky high. Our economy was overheating and, between the Estimates and the Budget, the Government had injected a further £4.5 billion in extra demand. Disaster loomed. There was no guiding fiscal policy.
Derek McDowell regarded it as an election Budget. It was a defining moment when personal greed was elevated above the public good. The economy was now likely to crash-land rather than glide to a halt. The rich were still getting richer while the poor got peanuts.
The cut in the top rate of tax was particularly galling to the Labour Party spokesman and he said income distribution in Ireland would remain among the most unequal in Europe.
Charlie McCreevy shrugged it all off. As their criticisms mounted, his smile got wider. The Coalition Government was on a winner. The Minister had even managed to include some of his own pet projects without frightening Fianna Fail back benchers.
Individualisation, which discriminated against stay-at-home wives, was gently extended and, while employers were required to take some extra pain through higher PRSI charges, they were promised tax breaks in the Finance Bill on profit-sharing and other share option schemes.
There were a few omissions. Decentralisation, one of the big ideas of the last budget, was still waiting to happen. There was little progress on eco taxes and parking. It was a topsy-turvy world. For the second time in four budgets, Mr McCreevy was driven by outside forces. Demands from the social partners and his Cabinet colleagues had directed spending.
Unlike his first and third budgets, the Minister had not been let off the leash. Bertie Ahern said as much to the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party yesterday morning. TDs, he assured them, would be pleased.
Consultations with party members and ministers would be "fully reflected" by the Budget. He didn't want anybody going on a negative solo run.
Small chance of it. After Mr McCreevy finished with his litany of giveaways, Fianna Fail backbenchers were so exhausted with hullooing and clapping that they could barely drag themselves away for a celebratory drink.
The deal was done, the risks taken. Now it was up to the social partners to deliver on PPF. Mr McCreevy had a final word for them. When pay increases and tax cuts in the Budget were taken into account, workers on the average industrial wage would get 13.5 per cent more and inflation was expected to fall to 4.5 per cent.
There was, indeed, something for everyone in the audience.