The IMF has demanded that Ireland stick to its plans for €2 billion of austerity in the next Budget.
The fund's poured cold water on hopes of a softer budget than expected - saying now is not the time to ease off on cost-cutting.
Its first report on Ireland post-bailout is broadly positive - with falling unemployment and rising property prices.
But it says now's not the time to ease up on austerity: it's followed the European Commission and Fiscal Advisory Council by saying €2 billion in austerity measures is the bare minimum needed to meet our targets for next year.
And it goes further by calling on the government to commit to the full €2 billion now - so that if the economy does better than expected, it'll simply mean less pain for the future.
But even after Budget 2015 it says there's plenty of hard choices ahead.
In order to meet the commitments Ireland made in the Fiscal Compact, the IMF says another €5.5 billion in austerity measures will needed to balance the budget by the year 2018.
