The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has indicated strongly that he will bring in one more give-away Budget before a general election. He also appears ready to do battle again with the European Commission over the broad economic policy guidelines which he again insisted yesterday are not binding.

He said that if people looked at his form in recent Budgets, they would get a strong indication of what he will do in the December Budget. Mr McCreevy has unveiled a series of tax cuts and increased spending in his tenure as Finance Minister.

Earlier this year the Commission issued an unprecedented reprimand to Ireland for ignoring last year's guidelines. This year the guidelines are again calling for a careful Budget to avoid stimulating the economy, which the EU fears is still overheating.

However, the Minister, speaking at the launch of the National Treasury Management Agency annual report yesterday, insisted the economy is still doing well and he would merely take note of the guidelines.

"I take the advice of my own Department, various institutions as well as the Commission and everyone else who offers it and then I do what I think best."

He added that if "people were to look at a form book there is a strong possibility it would say what I will do on Budget day". Last year the Minister delivered around £2.1 billion (#2.7 billion) in spending increases and tax cuts. The ESRI has recently recommended that to keep the economy on track no more than £700 million should go on further spending and tax cuts.

Mr McCreevy said he still believes in distributing economic largesse. "Policy in the past has been very successful and a continuation of that, where you create the economic largesse and then distribute it, has been very, very successful."

He said that looking at this year, current spending is up 20 per cent, there are 15,000 extra workers in the health sector, and more money has been spent on education.

"No other OECD or any other industrialised economy has ever had growth of 11.5 per cent in one year which we had last year," he said.

Even if GDP growth slows to 6 per cent or 7 per cent, which many are predicting for this year, it is still four times the EU average, he added.

Mr McCreevy said he does not believe in notions like a sustainable growth rate. "That is like deciding the best way to walk."

According to Mr McCreevy, Fianna Fail and the other political parties have been elected as individual politicians to form a Government which then makes decisions. The European Commission has not.

The Minister is also likely to be hoping that if reprimanded again he will not be on his own. The Portuguese and Spanish have both been told to tighten their budgets. The Germans have been told to cut their budget deficit to 1.25 per cent, a target that is likely to prove very hard to achieve.

However, Mr McCreevy also noted that the current Commission is particularly active, especially concerning business incentive schemes, including certain tax breaks which apply in the IFSC. But he added that becoming more stringent about business incentives applied to a range of other countries and not just Ireland.

He said Belgian Finance Minister Mr Didier Reynders had said that low Irish corporate taxation was at the back of other Ministers' minds when they voted against Ireland earlier this year.

It is unclear how much money McCreevy is likely to have on Budget day. He said the projected Exchequer surplus of £2.5 billion is unlikely to be met.

The Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy has published legislation to allow for mortgage bonds, which should make the market more competitive.

The so-called pfandbrief legislation will give lenders access to cheaper money than many can currently access and, therefore, lead to cheaper mortgages.

Lenders are reluctant to say how much cheaper loans could become and most say the market is already competitive. However, it is likely that the bonds will give lenders access to money that is offered at rates closer to the European Central Bank's base rate than many smaller lenders in particular can currently access.

If the market remains competitive that benefit should be passed onto customers, although some lenders will undoubtedly be keen to add it to the bottom line.