All that hype to give us a fiver? Paschal, please

How many more times will we be seduced by the big Budget circus and its ringmaster, the Finance Minister?

Months and months of endless submissions and lobbying followed by a frenzy of fivers! Trendy taxes on sugar and enough additional social housing to clear one floor of a hotel.

I am amazed how people get excited by all of this. Business breakfasts for Brexit bores followed by endless interpretations by the media. And for what? Alleged net benefits that wouldn’t buy you a six-pack of fizzy drinks a week over a year.

I say ‘alleged’ because, while the minister baffles us with a percentage or a fiver here and a percentage or a fiver there, our insurers are hiking the price of cover; our utility bills are increasing and we all end up paying more for everything, despite the budgetary smoke and mirrors.

Our budgets are old hat! We need a new, creative approach that benefits us in real terms not a same old same old sideshow that lacks inspiration, energy and originality. Xavier McCullough, Mount Green, Co. Limerick.