The Tánaiste has signalled that the government will ignore calls from its own budget advisors to continue with austerity in the next Budget.
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council wants the government to stick to the planned 2 billion euro of cuts and tax hikes - warning that the public finances are still in a delicate shape.
But Joan Burton and other ministers say the first priority is meeting the EU targets - and that this can be done without any more austerity measures.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports.
