Fairness is sacrosanct, child benefit is not

The forthcoming budget is going to impact hugely on those who can least afford it. If any proper effort is to be made to protect the most vulnerable, a new approach is required from both the Government and opposition.

THOSE were the days. It was October 2008, and nobody knew it was so bad. The lies peddled by bankers had yet to be exposed. The euro was still a currency on which you could have put your negative-equity house. The bailout of the state was but a glint in the eye of some evil incarnation of the markets.

Those were the days when the pensioners showed the rest of society how to protest. Those heady days were revisited last Monday on the RTÉ programme, Crisis: Cowen in Government. The decision by the government in the budget of October 2008 to discontinue automatic medical cards for over-70s unleashed hell on the streets around Leinster House.