This Government has spent millions on Irish Water — an estimated €180 million on setting it up; €50m on “consultants” and even another €55,000 on a gym for staff — and one of the reasons offered for all of this is that the company and the revenue it gets from taxpayers is necessary to fix the leaking pipes which carry the water.

Now that Dec 15 has passed, I want to remark on a cloying cliché doing the rounds in the media in the last couple of months: the phrase, “waving goodbye to the troika”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s recent comments to the American media stating that “we’ll pay our dues in full and on time”, adding that “while it’s difficult for our people and challenging for our country, we know we’re headed in the right direction” brushed casually aside the needless suffering being inflicted on the Irish populace and were reminiscent of the worst utterances of his predecessor.

ECONOMIST Richard Tol’s prediction, as he departed his ERSI post, to the efffect that Ireland faces another decade of economic austerity, might be wholly depressing, but it was scarcely a revelation.