Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Cutting the number of junior Ministers, the bonfire of the quangos, child benefit as a red-line issue, forcing banks to absorb ECB interest rate rises, no further cuts to public service pay, 105,000 jobs from the NewERA deal, renegotiating the EU-IMF deal and burning the bondholders - all were high-profile, highly popular election slogans and are now abandoned or stuck in reverse after only five weeks. They are merely a small section from a long and growing list of abandoned pledges on which the Government got elected. The Taoiseach seems to be preparing the ground for another U-turn.

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