Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said the Government has to 'repair the tax base' in tomorrow's supplementary Budget.
In an interview on RTE's 6.1, he said people who suggested that the public finances could be restored without tax increases were deceiving themselves, as the tax base had fallen far more quickly than the overall economy.
Mr Lenihan said the measures he would announced would not be easy, but they would be fair.
Asked about the banks, he said there was now a worldwide recognition that financial institutions needed to be 'cleaned up'. The Minister said there would not be progress on banking reform until bad loans, mostly linked to property development, were taken off banks' balance sheets.
