The real outrage is still to come as deeper budget cuts start to bleed

I’m not advocating that we should abandon the pension reserve fund to pay for day-to-day expenditure.

But the idea that we’re keeping more than €1bn to one side to pay for the future, and to invest in wildly uncertain markets at a time when our school system, for example, is under extreme pressure, is madness in my view

LEADERSHIP? You’d have to wonder, wouldn’t you. The essence of leadership is communication — especially the ability to communicate a coherent and long-term vision. But the only thing the Government managed to communicate, in the aftermath of last week’s budget, was that elderly people, and especially vulnerable elderly people, would be expected to carry the burden of adjustment in our public finances. People who had given a lifetime of service were called on to show their patriotism by living in fear.