Let’s be in no doubt: The public service didn’t cause the recession

The man with the sandbags is one of them. He works for Fingal County Council.

After my house got flooded and the rotted carpet was rolled up in the back garden for the insurance man to inspect, I contacted the local authority, explaining that next time the climate change monsoon hit, I’d like to keep some of the water out, because the insurance company might not be happy about recurring soddenness. Oh, they said, light dawning. You need sandbags. We’ll give you sandbags.

They did, too. Free, gratis and for nothing. The man arrived the day after the phone call. On time. He left the sandbags in a neat pile where he’d been asked to leave them and went off to rescue somebody else. He didn’t look for a tip and he didn’t present one of those idiotic questionnaires inviting me to rate his service on a scale of one to five. He just did the job right.