A second cabinet minister has hinted that the government is set to ignore the advice of its own budget advisors.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council wants €2bn of tax hikes and spending cuts in the budget, even though we can meet our EU deficit targets without them.

The Council says the coalition should proceed with caution.

Just last week, official figures showed a significant improvement in Irish growth figures.

However, the Council is urging the government to proceed with another tough budget. It says Irish fiscal policy has a history of contributing to boom and bust cycles, and now is the time to break this pattern.

Last week the Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the coalition would proceed with caution, but admitted a 'neutral' budget could be unveiled next month.

However the Council says that because this is the first budget since Ireland exited the bailout, being 'prudent' would show the government is serious about fixing the remaining problems in the economy.

But the Tánaiste Joan Burton says the main focus is on meeting the EU deficit targets - hinting that the calls will be ignored.

And her Labour colleague Alex White says extra measures simply are not needed to meet that EU target.