49-minute ram-raid on family life

HE was not quite in the same league as King Herod but Brian Lenihan saw no need to spare the children.

The massacre of the infants’ earning potential witnessed those under the age of six having their contribution to family funds cut by six months.

Clawing back the end point for the already wildly inadequate €1,000-a-year Early Childcare Supplement from six years old to five and a half years old, did however, dove-tail perfectly with the spitefully regressive nature of the rest of Mr Lenihan’s first budget.