Path of least resistance not the fairest

IN THE hours before Michael Noonan got to his feet yesterday, you would have been forgiven for expecting a declaration of war rather than a budget speech.

Gardaí clad in high-visibility vests stood in knots on all approach roads to the gates of Leinster House. Molesworth Street, which runs right up to the gates, was cordoned off. Brand new super-reinforced crash barriers were in place around the whole environs of Government Buildings. It was as if somebody in authority feared that great swathes of the population would finally rise up and strike out against years of austerity.

Not a chance. The populace at large have long resigned themselves to their fatalistic lot. Besides, Noonan and Brendan Howlin are too astute to declare war on any major cohort of the population at this late stage of the austerity game. Their speeches were never going to include a detail that might incite the people to storm the barricades. Instead, in keeping with a trend of the last few years, it was a case of guerrilla warfare, identifying the points of least resistance, and hitting home with the pain of 1,000 different cuts.