McCreevy set for marathon address

Word from the bowels of Government Buildings is that Charlie McCreevy's Budget speech will go on a bit longer than the Ruairi Quinn model. The Labour man had to sit through a couple of years of listening to the Bertie Ahern marathons, where every few bob being doled out was mentioned. So Ruairi trimmed his speech to just one hour, making it the shortest Budget speech that the Margin can remember. But Charlie McCreevy is putting in the Duracell batteries. Word is that his speech will go to about one and a quarter hours.