Oh the irony of it. An Bord Snip was only reconstituted – more than two decades after Colm McCarthy first filled the role – because of the enormous economic and fiscal crisis facing the country. Now, the concern is that, because of the political crisis the government is facing, the McCarthy report itself is going to be first up for the axe.

Although the initial response to the report of An Bord Snip Nua was largely positive, the grumbling has been going on behind the scenes for some time, finally getting a full airing with the comments of arts minister Martin Cullen in Farmleigh last Saturday and then on Wednesday with Tánaiste Mary Coughlan's extraordinary intervention.

Given that finance minister Brian Lenihan has made it clear the report of An Bord Snip Nua was to form the basis of the various departments' deliberations on spending cuts, Coughlan's dismissal of "many" of its recommendations is extraordinary.

Conspiracy theories as to why Coughlan said what she said – including one suggestion that she was reflecting what the Taoiseach himself was thinking – can be dismissed. Coughlan seemed to make the comment almost as an after-thought. But there can be no doubt that it reflects not just her own, but many cabinet ministers' views on McCarthy's report. All of which begs the question as to how wholehearted ministers are about the huge challenge that lies ahead over the next 10 weeks.

Let's be quite clear about this. When ministers say that many of the cuts recommended by An Bord Snip Nua don't "make sense", what they really mean is they don't make "political sense".

For example, while it makes sense to reduce the number of garda stations around the country, it just doesn't make political sense to do so. We really don't need an average of 27 garda stations per county. The argument has been, and will continue to be, made about the need to reassure local communities that they are safe from crime. But it's gardaí on the streets and roads, not the bricks and mortar of often empty garda stations, that prevent and solve crime.

It also makes sense to reduce the number of county councils and abolish urban district councils. It makes sense to end the lunacy of subsidising at huge expense (mainly better off) people to fly from the likes of Knock or Sligo to Dublin when it is environmentally unfriendly and barely quicker than driving or going by public transport. It makes sense to close some of the barely-used rail lines. In fact, it makes sense to implement the vast majority of the many recommendations of McCarthy's report.

But of course it doesn't necessarily make political sense to do so. The amounts of money saved from some of the proposed measures would be small, particularly initially. But if, at a time of crisis, the government can't reform how it spends taxpayers' money and start making decisions on what is right, not what is politically advantageous, then things will never change.

Of course, the most important task is getting the €3bn to 4bn in savings and bridging the enormous gap between what the state is spending and what it is taking in.

But, there is a second goal that, in the medium term at least, is also crucial. The report of An Bord Snip Nua – no less than the mothballed Commission of Taxation report – represents an opportunity to start again. An opportunity to end the immorality of a system that during the peak of the boom saw huge increases in spending every year, yet still left children on waiting lists to receive hearing aids. An opportunity to make decisions that would not have been politically possible even a year ago. An opportunity to break the mould and put the needs of the people of Ireland as a whole ahead of the special interest group which can shout the loudest.

But, even in a time of crisis, that is almost certainly wishful thinking. The political reality is that come 2 December, the government has to get what is going to be toughest budget in the history of the state through the Dáil.

And there is a political logic about choosing to fight two or three major battles rather than facing the prospect of death by a thousand cuts.

It's looking increasingly likely that the government will opt for a 2% or 3% cut in social welfare rates, along with a hefty reduction in child benefit and a 5% average cut in public sector pay. Those three measures will deliver savings of around €2bn.

But even allowing for new revenues from carbon taxes, the government will have to find another €1bn from cuts in spending on various programmes.

Which is why reports of the death of the An Bord Snip Nua report are probably somewhat exaggerated, despite the wishes of some in the cabinet.

And perhaps those ministers need to be careful about what they wish for. The best way for McCarthy's recommendations not to be implemented would be for the current government to fall – a prospect that is unlikely to appeal to many of them in the current climate.

Given the pain involved, it's going to be hugely difficult to get the upcoming budget through the Oireachtas. And whatever chance there is of getting the Fianna Fáil and Green backbenchers to swallow hard and back the measures, it's not going to happen if the sense is that ministers are not fully behind the proposals.

scoleman@tribune.ie