So the politicians spent the €1.5bn — what did you expect?

Fiscal straitjacket rules mean surpluses should be order of the day by 2021

The surprise in the budget was not in the budget. That extra €1.5 billion in supplementary spending outlined in the White Paper on Revenue and Expenditure, published in the wee hours of last Saturday morning, was the surprise.

It’s not that having extra spending at the back end of the year is surprising. It has long been a feature of government accounts – indeed it’s a traditional feature, deeply embedded in the system, ...