No mention of the word poverty in €116bn national development plan

When tens of thousands of children are lost, there doesn’t seem to be any problem at all, writes Fergus Finlay.

ONE hundred and sixteen billion euro; it’s a fierce amount of money. When I’m typing it out, I have to check the noughts several times to make sure I have it right. It’s the sort of sum that’s impossible to get your head around.

But it’s what we’re going to invest in our future over the next few years. Just to give you one more figure, that’s €24,360 for every man, woman, and child of us. Sounds pretty daunting when you put it that way, doesn’t it?