Cynicism a threat to democracy

The total cost of benchmarking will soar to €4 billion over the next three years, which is about €700 million more that what was forecast.

The cost of the whole thing to the exchequer has apparently been grossly underestimated, because many of the knock on implications were overlooked, such as the extra pension entitlements that will accrue to former employees of the public sector.

Actuarial forecasts suggest that those pension increases will cost the exchequer between €300 million and €500 million annually.