Irish budget, 2010

The 2010 Irish Budget refers to the delivery of a government budget by the Government of Ireland on 9 December 2009, its third in fourteen months. It was also the third overall budget to be delivered by Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan as Minister for Finance.

The 2010 Budget was described by commentators in Ireland and around the world in unusually harsh terms as €4 billion was removed from the country's national deficit. It was characterised by pay cuts for public sector workers and cuts in social welfare. According to the BBC, social welfare cuts had not been implemented by the country since 1924. The cuts prompted at least one angry outburst in Dáil Éireann, the principal chamber of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament). Among the other initiatives unveiled in this Budget was a car scrappage scheme as well as a new carbon tax.

The post-budget debate was interrupted by a famous use of unparliamentary language by Green Party TD Paul Gogarty, an example which attracted international attention.

The budget for 2010 occurred in the context of a major recession, which followed the Irish financial crisis. It also followed the difficult 2009 budget, which led to widespread protests, as well as a supplementary emergency budget in April 2009. This meant that the 2010 budget was the third to be delivered by the Finance Minister in only fourteen months.

The following are the main points of Budget 2010.

Excise duties on beer and cider were decreased by 12 cent, excise duties on a half-glass of spirits were decreased by 14 cent and a bottle of wine was decreased by 60 cent, with a warning from the Finance Minister that these reductions were open to being recalled if consumers did not benefit. Due to an increase in the smuggling of tobacco into Ireland, prices of tobacco remained unaltered.

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