Getting rid of Fianna Fáil is just the first step for betrayed voters

I’VE never begrudged paying taxes — until now. It was a friend and colleague of mine who said that, as she looked at the shipwreck that used to be her pay-slip.

She’s not a highly-paid person, not someone who lives high on the hog. By the time she has paid her mortgage each month, there’s just about enough to get by. And she’s someone who believes strongly in social justice and in fairness, and tries to practice it in her work.

In other words, she’s just like most people I know. And most people I met this past week were similarly shocked by the size of the cuts they received — hundreds of euro a month from already very modest pay packets.