Memorable Budgets - 1987, "Mac the Knife"

"Mac the Knife"

Minister for Finance Ray MacSharry delivered a tough budget. Fiscal rectitude was the phrase of the day. The budget targeted the public service, imposing a pay freeze and an embargo on recruitment. It put an end to a number of housing grants, and travellers who left the country for less than 48 hours were no longer entitled to duty-free goods. A £10 charge for hospital outpatients was also introduced.

Ray MacSharry answers listeners who feel that the budget has been very hard on the PAYE sector, assuring them that he is a PAYE worker himself.

It's Very Hard to Take Skin off a Skeleton

At the end of RTÉ's Budget '87 special, presenter Brian Farrell asks the panel to give their opinions. Kieran Mulvey of the ASTI sums up his feelings with, "...it's very hard to take skin off a skeleton, but at the moment, we are even breaking the skeleton's legs".

Another Budget 12 Years on

With over 250,000 people on the dole, RTÉ's “Evening Extra” looks at the plight of social welfare recipients. In 1975 Nick Coffey interviewed two families from inner-city Dublin for an RTÉ “7 Days'” programme. On the eve of the 1987 budget, he returns to both families to see how they are getting on.