Farming out the pain at Farmleigh

It certainly felt like a funeral at Farmleigh as the black ministerial Mercs purred up the long, winding driveway to the stately home where the Cabinet would decide how deep to plunge the welfare knife amidst the beautiful tapestries and priceless pieces of art adorning the walls.

A few ministers stopped to unwind the windows of their expensive, taxpayer funded chauffeur-driven German cars on the way through the gates to speak breathlessly about the need for “fairness”.

Ironically, the meeting was delayed due to the fact the Finance Minister needed to urgently liaise with the EU Monetary Commissioner — a telling sign that if Irish economic sovereignty is not quite dead yet it is certainly haemorrhaging power heavily to Brussels all the time.