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Battle for the €165bn war chest
In July, while the country was basking in a heatwave and the coalition struggled to agree precise rules for the return of indoor dining, a seismic spending battle was under way among ministers behind the scenes. Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Michael McGrath was locked in a series of tense bilateral meetings with ministers and their officials over funding for capital infrastructure projects over the next decade. Talks got “hairy enough in July”, according to one well-placed source, but these tensions were kept largely under the radar.
