The budget, labelled "the toughest in many years",[5] included a number of controversial measures such as a proposed income levy which was eventually restructured and the withdrawal of previously promised HPV vaccines for schoolgirls.
Other results of the budget included a new income levy being imposed on all workers above a specified threshold and the closure of a number of military barracks near the border with Northern Ireland.
[4] The Independent described Ireland's financial situation as "the dismal business of adjusting to a generational drop in living standards with the end of the Celtic Tiger boom and the prospect of a new era of austerity".
[4] The Independent also carried a cartoon of Ireland's Taoiseach Brian Cowen measuring a lifeless Celtic Tiger before deciding that it would have to go on a diet at the present time.
[4] Meanwhile, The Irish Times disagreed with an assessment on the website of the Toronto Star which said the budget was a "painstakingly negotiated plan" which involved "hefty hikes in income tax and service spending cuts" which it said were intended to restore confidence in the "shaky finances of debt-stricken Ireland".