Pressure may mount on Ireland to find further ways of saving money and reducing the deficit, as pressure continues to build across the Eurozone.
The options facing Michael Noonan and Joan Burton are of the kind that would keep any politician worth their salt awake at night. The coalition’s current popularity, at least Fine Gael’s if the polls are to be believed, should be lapped up by Enda Kenny as the budget looms ever closer.
Further levies – just another name for an additional tax – have been hinted at. And they may well come in their multiples, a move that will put a further squeeze on consumer spending among those who still possess disposable incomes. Child benefit may even be targeted, a move which has all the echoes of the tax on children’s shoes introduced by then Finance Minister John Bruton in 1982.
