When the head rules the Harte, it’s trouble

IT was a story to make the blood boil. Last Tuesday, it was all over the daily newspapers. For the remainder of the week, it filled the airwaves and newsprint.

A family is pulling in around €90,000 a year from social welfare payments.

The married couple were described as unemployed. They have four children, are from Bosnia, and live in Dublin. The politician who broke the story, Labour senator Jimmy Harte, made the point it was entirely irrelevant where they came from. The point was the system, and how it was beyond reason.