THE OPPOSITION has been busy painting the backdrop. The performance is a little less than a month away.

Nobody knows the exact storyline of the play but the broad theme has been well-signalled by the government.

'Budget 2010' on 9 December is going to be one of the worst in the history of the state. The opposition know this and it intends to garner political capital as the drama unfolds.

Last Wednesday in the Dáil chamber, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed that rumoured cuts to child-benefit payments will "not treat all the children of the nation equally, as was set out in 1916 and many times since".

Similarly, Labour's Eamon Gilmore labelled a government decision not to pay a Christmas bonus "that has been paid to pensioners and others every year since 1980" as "very mean".

As the opposition stokes emotions, in the same way that Fianna Fáil would if it was in the same position, the harsh reality is that nobody has a magic wand and the budget is going to be extremely tough.

As finance minister Brian Lenihan prepares to deliver his second annual budget, on top of the supplementary budget last April, it is worthwhile to look back at his previous two budgets. Both were dubbed the "worst in the history of the state" beforehand. Both lived up to the hype and were met with public anger.

But some key elements of the last two budgets have not been implemented to date and others have not had the desired effect. What is planned in a budget does not always become reality.

Take the car-parking levy, announced on 14 October 2008, as a case in point. The government's plan was to impose a flat-rate levy of €200 a year on employees whose employer provides them with car-parking facilities. The levy was due to be confined to employers providing car-parking facilities in the main urban centres. The estimated yield from this measure was to be €5m in 2009 and €10m in a full year.

Thirteen months on, and after the government realised that the parking-levy will be an administrative nightmare, the levy has yet to be implemented.

Elsewhere, plans for the rationalisation of state agencies were set out in the October 2008 budget. Following on from a review of the Irish public service, the plan was to amalgamate some bodies and scrap others.

All in all, the comprehensive plan was to involve 30 rationalisation proposals and reduce the number of bodies by 41.

Among the proposals were plans to merge the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority. This is just one of the proposals that has yet to happen.

In the supplementary budget in April, under the heading 'Taxation measures for introduction in 2009', Lenihan outlined plans for a Vat margin scheme for second-hand cars.

The scheme that will tax dealers on their margin on second-hand cars they buy and resell was meant to come into effect on 1 July last but this has not happened. According to the Revenue Commissioners, the scheme will not now come into effect until 1 January next year.

In fairness to Lenihan, many of the proposals contained in his two budgets to date have been successfully implemented and they are either bringing in revenue or cutting back on government expenditure as planned.

But there are some exceptions to this rule and the stamp duty 'trade-in' scheme is a case in point. The initiative was announced in the April 'mini-budget' to kick-start the property market.

Under the scheme, no stamp duty is payable by a person who accepts a traded-in property in exchange or part exchange for a new house or apartment. The stamp duty applies when the person subsequently sells on the 'swapped' or traded-in house.

The scheme was introduced on 7 May and is set to continue until the end of 2010.

Last Thursday, the Department of Finance's pre-budget outlook document referred to the Irish economy being in such dire straits partly as a result of a "correction" in the housing market.

The reality is that the bottom fell out of the property market. The bubble has exploded and just five people had applied to take part in the 'trade-in' tax scheme in its first four months.

Over the next 22 days, the spoilers will appear as the government attempts to prepare the public for the worst.

The opposition will continue to stir up emotions with its rhetoric on how the government is so "mean".

And around the cabinet table, government ministers will hatch plans to make €4bn in savings.

This plan will no doubt contain some great ideas. There is also little doubt that it will contain some schemes that may never see the light of day.