Record budget spend but feelgood factor is missing

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

Possibly not the best intro ever to a column but I’m going to start it this week with a moment of pure magic from the brilliant TV comedy series, The Royle Family.

It was when Jim’s daughter, Denise, and her husband David, decided to cook the Christmas dinner for the family. Needless to say, it was a disaster.

Anyway, Denise announced to all and sundry that the first course would be “‘Cup-a-Soup’ with a twist”.

“What’s the twist?” asked Jim.

“We are serving it in a bowl,” said Denise without missing a beat.

I’m sure by this stage you have guessed the segue.

Yep, what we got this week was a giveaway Budget, but one with a twist. And the twist was that even though Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath handed out more money than any other Budget in the history of the State, nobody felt like they were really getting anything. The feel-good factor was totally absent.

I’m long enough around the block to remember giveaway budgets in the old mode. Unsurprisingly, the most memorable ones occurred in election years. There was Charlie McCreevy’s in 2002 and Brian Cowen’s in 2007. They increased spending, reduced taxes and were designed to make everybody feel they were getting a few extra euro in their pocket.

And of course, both of them were election budgets. Bertie Ahern’s famous comment of the time summed up the outlook back then: “The Boom is getting Boomier.”

Now we seem to be on the other end of the cycle. Unemployment is worse than it was in the recession a decade ago, worse than it was in the dark and dismal days of the early to-mid- 1980s. But there is no talk now of us living beyond our means or having to tighten our belts. That conversation will take place sometime in the future. There was no talk either or taxes being lowered, or USC being changed, or Leo Varadkar rewarding those who get up early in the morning.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.