Government has legal responsibility to repay every penny

IRELAND, like every other democracy, is a state governed by the rule of law. What this means is that we are ruled by laws and not by men, and that both the Government and the people are bound by the same rules.

This democratic principle is what distinguishes us from the autocratic tyrannies of monarchy and theocracy, and vile totalitarian ideologies of fascism and socialism.

The rule of law simply means that every individual can do whatever is not prohibited by law, but the Government can only do what the law permits it to do. An extension of this is the principle that the government can’t tax without law.