Just listening to Morning Ireland, which reported on reaction to the Ceann Comhairle’s resignation from his home town of Cahirciveen where he was lauded as being a great man “For the area.” What’s revealing is the way, almost to a man, those interviewed regarded the money he got, either for himself or for local GAA clubs, etc, as being magic money that came from somewhere else at no cost to them. There was no outrage over the fact that this was their money, their taxes.
Of course, this isn’t an attitude unique to Kerry South. This is a national phenomenon, where Irish people regard government spending as a limitless bounty, and that demanding more of it has nothing but positive consequences, because of the perception that someone else pays for it all.
Except there is no one else, there’s just us. We’re paying for this nonsense.