Colin Sheridan: Radio listeners deliver the hits to ministers over budget

Listening to callers on the radio, you couldn’t help but feel Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers were missing the point

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe (left) and Minister for Finance Jack Chambers (right) took more kidney punches than Anthony Joshua on RTE Radio 1's Claire Byrne show this morning. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photo

There was a time when budget day meant something. Simpler times, surely, when we only had one Minister for Finance, and they invariably looked like a school principal instead of a HDip student. 

Those were the days when little got leaked, so everything felt like a surprise. Even though there may have been a little austerity to endure, you still felt happy for the minister regardless of your political persuasion because he or she got to put on a new outfit, take a picture with their family like they were delivering $12m to a Mexican cartel in Tijuana.