Budget day is no longer shrouded in secrecy. We’ve come a long way since 2003, when the then minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy, launched decentralisation on an unwitting populace in his budget speech. Not all of his cabinet colleagues knew what was coming.

There can be unexpected things in government reports. Did you know, for example, that car manufacturer BMW redesigned some of its assembly lines to make them ‘senior’-friendly?