Noonan must lay off private sector, time to go public

Back at the start of its reign, this Government — under Finance Minister Noonan —decided that to try to get ends to move closer together it would dip into private sector pensions by imposing a levy on the capital sums that had accrued.

That levy was closer to larceny on a grand scale, as for years Government encouraged us to provide for our old age.

When that levy was imposed, hundreds of thousands of the same private sector were being laid off or put on zero-hours contracts. Tens of thousands of others were emigrating to find jobs in far flung regions of the world. They have not and cannot return, and many may never be able to.