Last week, the Irish people had to endure another session of nauseating back-slapping when the IMF chief, Christine Lagarde hailed them heroes as she was cheered on by her tea boys and girl, Enda, Brendan and Joan and her “good friend, Michael.”

The recent revelation that €100m of taxpayers’ money has already been spent in setting up Irish Water with much more to follow is an outrageous scandal and an expression of outright contempt towards the taxpayer and the consumer.