REACTION: The Budget was described as "a massive disappointment" by the Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Mr Richard Bruton.

"The Minister deserves no plaudits today for donning his new found zeal for fiscal rectitude. It has come too late. He had 17 months, in the run-up to the election, when spending ran ahead by 50 per cent. In May this year, before the election was called, spending was running ahead by 15 per cent.

"He was spending 10 times what was being generated in revenue." Mr Bruton said that people had been waiting for the Minister to call halt and say that the consequences of the reckless spending would be that the weak and the poorest would suffer.

"He said it in his Budget reaction to Ruairí Quinn in 1997 that he knew, when spending went wrong, the weakest and the poorest in our community suffered. They were depending on him to reign in the Taoiseach and his ministers who were relentlessly pursuing their electoral goals.

"Here is the man who, despite having based his political reputation on his criticism of Charlie Haughey and the reckless spending of the 1980s, was found wanting when his courage came to be tested. He could not face down those around him who wanted to put electoral gain ahead of the national interest."

It was a case of politics before people, and the people were now being made to pay in the Budget, he added.

"This was going to be a tough Budget because of the reckless spending which preceded it. But what is remarkable about it is the personal pet schemes of the Minister for Finance have not been touched."

He wondered how the Minister could ask the lowest paid in society to accept there would be no increase in their tax credits and 3 per cent extra in inflation. "But he is going to protect those who can afford to save. Where is the justice in that? Where is the equity in that?"

Mr Bruton said that while he agreed with the principle of the pension fund, he did not agree to using taxpayers' to invest in the stock exchanges of New York and Japan. "Perhaps that will protect employment in New York and Japan. But, assuredly, it will lose jobs here in Ireland."

Mr Bruton said the Budget was the product "of the much done more to do model". People would pay with their jobs, he added. "The Minister is adding to pressure on prices and wages. He is adding to the pressures of congestion and delay on our streets.

"He continues to cut his capital budget. His derisory provision on the capital side will be wiped out by the VAT increase."

Projects, said Mr Bruton, would be slowed down to a crawl. "In a small, open economy, the one thing you cannot afford to do is to damage competitiveness. In today's Budget, we see an assault on competitiveness - extra prices, extra charges, less investment. The message is very clear: it is going to get tougher for people trying to do business."