Last week saw an unprecedented attack on the good folk of Dublin 4.

Given recent Government concern about the (alleged) annual cost of running the Seanad, I expected to see action in the budget.

Michael Clifford (Forum, Oct 12) accused both camps in the abortion debate of distorting Savita Halappanavar’s case for their own purposes.

We just had a campaign to get rid of an elitist Seanad because it is unaffordable in a country that has been bankrupt by the decisions of its most powerful citizens.

As cathaoirleach of Cloich Ceann Faola branch of Pobal ar Aire (Community Watch) I find the cut to the phone allowance a regressive step in more ways than one.

The day after the Budget, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton was interviewed by Richard Crowley on RTÉ’s News at One.

In agreeing to implement one of the principal recommendations of Mr Justice Quirke’s Magdalene report that all lump sum payments to survivors of the Magdalene laundries be exempt from tax, Finance Minister Michael Noonan, in the course of Budget 2014, has made a virtue of doing what is right and moral.

There is no doubt about it — you have to hand it to Fianna Fáil — they might be down but not ‘out’ by any means.

The Budget sidelined the bank losses for last year, which were €5.96bn between AIB and Bank of Ireland.

If politicians doubt why they are reviled, all they have to do is look at the glaring contradictions between their rhetoric and the facts of Irish political life.