Why aren’t TDs among first to take the pain?

IT was heartening recently to hear the Taoiseach declare no area of government expenditure can be “immune” from the possibility of cutbacks.

So, at long last we can expect that given the dire economic straits in which this country now finds itself because of government mismanagement, we are all going to see severe cutbacks in that area of the public service called Dáil Éireann.

In other words, we can all now look forward to further desirable cuts in TDs’ salaries and expenses, cuts in the numbers of an overstaffed Dáil and, finally, cuts in ministers’ pensions (an end once and for all to double, even triple, pension-secured futures). Or is all this too much to expect? Perhaps it is.