They tell you the money isn't there but you'd be a fool to believe them

IT'S the best-kept secret in Ireland - 5,402,369,000. It's a big number.

It's the current budget surplus, a measure of how well-off we are. I'm going to refer to it as 5.4 billion for short, because it takes a long time to keep writing or reading the full figure. But now and again I want you to just glance up to the top line of this column, just to see how big that number is.

Because you won't find it highlighted in any Government press release (it's always buried at the back). You won't find it referred to by the economic commentators who grace the pages of our newspapers and especially the airwaves, both radio and television. I'm convinced, as a matter of fact, that there's an unspoken conspiracy to keep the number secret.