Pat Rabbitte: That €1.5bn will have to go a long way in the budget

Interest groups invariably cloak their requests for extra cash as being for the greater good

The aircraft were scarcely airborne for Frankfurt, Brussels and New York with the troika aboard when the noise started for improvements now that, in a manner of speaking, we were sovereign again.

At first it was a scarcely audible hum, but quickly became a clamour for back to the future. It has risen to a crescendo in the run-up to this week’s budget.

It is remarkable that we can become so agitated about ...