WE TOG

them out in fatigues, shove an Austrian-made Steyr assault rifle into their arms and train them to become – where necessary – professional killers. All in the name of mother Ireland.

And then we insult our soldiers by pressing €482.38 (after tax) into their fists at the end of each and every week of service, and expect them to be grateful.

On the funny side, one has to wonder how we can be so stupid as to do that to people with ready access to loaded weapons. (That’ll put the anti-joke fundamentalists into a tizzy!)

More seriously – how can we do that at all and hope to retain their respect?

A fully trained Irish Army soldier earns €27,257 a year – meaning average soldiers stand no chance of ever buying a house in the Republic they defend to the death.

Home loans are now set at 3.5 times gross income. So, our new solider can only muster slightly more than €95,000. An average semi-D house in Dublin is now €440,000, in the commuter counties it’s €236,000 and in the main cities €244,000. Meanwhile, our heroes in Government drag their feet on social housing.