Do-gooders can fill the policy gap left open by our unimaginative state

THIS year our Government is planning to spend around €62 billion. It’s an enormous figure, isn’t it? You’d think there was no problem that couldn’t be solved with that kind of money, and maybe a little more imagination, a bit more serious planning and a lot more better management.

€62bn. It’s hard to imagine. I suspect if you laid it out in, say, €10 notes, it would stretch to the moon. But that’s what it costs to run the health and education systems, the gardaí and the army, to build and maintain the roads and railways and buses, to protect the environment, to care for people who need care and protection.

It comes to a quite staggering €14,263 for every man, woman and child of the population.