Going rate or not, public patience is wearing thin

THE disclosure that six members of staff at the former Anglo Irish Bank are on packages of €500k-plus could not come at a worse time for the Government or IBRC.

The Government has to convince the public to accept a series of swingeing cuts in sensitive areas, particularly health services, in the forthcoming budget. A minimum of €3.6bn has to be found on Dec 5, but it will be roughly 2015 before the country gets back within the 3% budget deficit limit agreed with the troika.

That means another three years of painful belt-tightening. And that is if the economy doesn’t deteriorate any further.