We could have top public services if our spending was transparent

We’ve had five years of Fine Gael and Labour, so none of their supporters can be under any delusion that those parties are any different to Fianna Fáil, not in policy, and especially not when it comes to ethics.

We know this so those who vote in 2016 cannot pretend they are voting for one or other party on that basis.

But the most depressing thing I heard from the Fine Gael Árd Fheis was taoiseach Enda Kenny, and various ministers, who should know better, trot out the proven fallacy that you can have a low tax economy and first world public services. There is no country on earth that has achieved this.