Leak anger misplaced in era of dependence

THOSE days when a junior minister could be forced to resign over the accidental leaking of budget information mere minutes before its official publication seem almost comical now, given the nonchalant exposure to a global audience this week of the Government’s planned VAT changes.

But the indignation that greeted the discovery that German MPs — and by consequence the international press corps — were poring over the plans a full three weeks before Irish TDs even had wind of them is pointless.

The fact is that our finances are no longer our business. They stopped being so as soon as we signed up to the EU/ECB/IMF rescue deal, and trying to pretend that we can keep a level of privacy under the troika’s searchlights is delusional.