Brian Lenihan gave the political performance of his life yesterday.

He struck the right note from the beginning, refusing to drag his family in front of the the cameras for the traditional Budget photocall. Instead, he opted for a sober, businesslike approach that perfectly suited the gravity of the occasion.

The former Belvedere College head boy exuded authority, both in the Dail and on RTE's Prime Time, where he held his own with Fine Gael's Richard Bruton in a head-to-head debate.

So why, just 24 hours later, is there a terrible fear on the Fianna Fail backbenches that the Minister for Finance may just have cost them the 2012 general election?

The answer is simple. This is a Budget that dishes out plenty of pain, but doesn't offer enough hope in return. Never has the phrase "the devil's in the detail" seemed more appropriate -- because the more you examine the text, the more you realise that it's full of landmines just waiting to blow up in the Government's face.

Already, FF TDs are bracing themselves for a flood of calls from over-70s who are terrified that their medical cards are about to be withdrawn. The educational sector is still reeling from the news that college registration fees have rocketed and class sizes are set to increase again.

Half-baked

Charity workers are angrily demanding how the minister can claim to be looking after "the little people" while simultaneously increasing taxes for those on the minimum wage.

Above all, the half-baked attacks on motorists will haunt this Government for a very long time to come. The petrol price increase, motor tax hike and levy on parking spaces make no sense at a time when public transport projects are either being delayed or abandoned. The Green Party's fingerprints are all over these daft proposals, but it's FF who will end up paying the price at the ballot box.

What does all this mean on a practical level? Simple -- from January 1, every time that people get into a car or visit a hospital, they're going to get an unpleasant reminder of Budget 2009.

Sooner or later, the massive outpouring of public anger against the banks is bound to spill over to Government.

Meanwhile, alarm bells should be ringing over Lenihan's refusal to say anything yesterday about reforming the public sector. Given the economic climate, he'll never have a better chance than this to make the radical cuts so desperately needed. Instead, all we got was a vague promise of a review -- which sounds depressingly like yet another fudge.

In many ways, this is the strangest Budget in living memory. Lenihan has raided the pockets of almost every single citizen, yet still finds himself accused of taking the easy option. The only clear winner is his old enemy, Joe Duffy, who has just been handed enough material to fill up Liveline from now until Christmas.

Sucker

It's also the most politically important Budget in years. The end of the Celtic Tiger has ushered in a new era for Irish politics, in which virtually everything is up for grabs.

If Brian Cowen can't convince the public that he's the man to steer us through this crisis then, in the immortal words of George Bush, this sucker could be going down.

For Brian Lenihan, a man who never bothers to disguise his ambition of becoming Taoiseach one day, putting this Budget together was actually the easy part. Now he has to get out there and sell it to a country that's still trying to cope with the psychological trauma of having gone from boom to bust in the blink of an eye.

If he fails, then the biggest loser of Budget 2009 will end up being the man who did such a good job of delivering it.

- Andrew Lynch