Michael Noonan has again said he does not believe he will need to achieve €2 billion of austerity measures in October's budget.
But he says it is still too early to tell how much he will need to achieve in spending cuts and tax increases to meet our EU targets.
The Finance Minister says he can remember times when the public finances grew worse as the year went on, and he is remaining cautious about what may be needed.
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But he says so far the picture is positive:
