Each year Charlie McCreevy gets richer, and as he delivers his third Budget speech in the Dail on Wednesday he will be in a better position than any previous Minister for Finance. He has more money than his predecessors and he will be reducing, rather than raising, taxes. He can be imaginative in his approach to the country's finances - introducing this scheme here, abolishing that anomaly there, dealing with this need here, helping that group there.
Good for him. Well, not quite. The politics of prosperity mean raised expectations and no matter what he does next week, most of us will not be pleased. Whether we get something for our pet project or our taxes are reduced, it will not be enough and someone else will do better.
Predictions are for lower taxes, through changes in rates and bands, with more for pensioners and children, relief on inheritance tax, incentives for share options, higher taxes on tobacco and motorists, plus something whacky and unexpected, in the order of big money for Croke Park or a cut in betting tax.
So much of what the Budget will contain is already known through the National Development Plan, the Programme for Government and the Book of Estimates, that the old drama is gone out of the day. Nonetheless, because of the new millennium and because they have so much money, the Department of Finance is giving a gold theme to the day by trimming all the paraphernalia in gold. For the first time the speech will be broadcast live on the Web worldwide.
The British style of pre-Budget hype in which ministers posed, waving the sacred briefcase surrounded by adoring wife and children, a scenario much-loved by Albert Reynolds in his day, has gone since Ruairi Quinn's ministry. On Wednesday, however, Charlie will not be alone for the pre-budget snap. He will be accompanied by Paddy Mullarkey who is retiring after five years as secretary general of the Department and six budgets (we had two in 1997 as we changed over to the European system).