Budget blunders - It’s time to own up and move on

IN THE past week Fianna Fáil, the leading party within the Government, has become divided, distrusted and exposed — all because of ineptitude.

Though we can ill afford it the authority of Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his inner circle is badly shaken.

They find themselves in this greatly weakened position because they imagined that the public and their own backbenchers would accept Mary Harney’s absurd proposal that any of our parents who had passed three score and ten and had an income of more than €12,500 were too rich to get a medical card.