The Sunday Paper Review 4th October

Um, I think what the government is saying is that it has about eight and a half billion to give away.

Uh, that's about seven billion in, uh, spending and services, and one and a half billion in tax cuts.

Now, how that's, th- there's now kind of arguments between departments, but within that you've got some problems.

First- first of all, you've got two government departments that have been overspending nonstop for the last few years.

So education, about 600 million this year, um, health services, just short of a billion.

So out of that seven billion, at least two billion almost of it is already accounted for, because that's going to have to cover off for, for excess spending for next year.

And now what you have is the horse trading between government departments.

So is the pension increase going to be 10 euros? A few weeks ago, it has been suggested that it might be seven point, uh, 7.50.

I think a lot of this is management of expectations, is, like, you say to people, "Listen, the pension increase will only be 7.50." Then suddenly, lo and behold, it's 10 euros, and so what a, what a great job the government has done.

The government had promised, in terms of pensions, to increase the pension by 60 euros over the course of this term, so that was about twen- an average 12 euros per year.

So if it's 10 euros short, then you're probably going to see the last year, it'll go up by 15, 16, 18 just before the election takes place.

So you could be very cynical and think, "This is kind of just us playing politics with it." But-

Which you'd never be, Derek.

Certainly not.

Certainly not.

But I think, like, I mean, John Drennan has a very good piece in The Mail today, um, basically, and it's kinda based on Donald Rumsfeld, who used to be George Bush's, uh, Defense Secretary, but he, there was these known knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns, and most of these are known knowns.

We know, we've a fair idea of what's coming up in the budget.

To move to you, Valerie, there are some sort of new battle points, I think, today, that are on the front of the papers.

The minimum wage increases, according to the Sunday Business Papers-

Yeah

... might not go ahead.

No, they might not go ahead, and it's only one of a number of things that might not go ahead.

I mean, obviously, we have people putting out all these ideas in the months in the run-up to the budget itself, but I mean, when it gets close to it, they're still making up their minds today.

They're having a meeting this evening even to decide on the childcare issues, um, you know, which should've been sorted out years ago.

And, see, I'm very cynical about the budget, as I'm sure all, most people are, because they give with one hand, they take back with the other.