When the spate of public sector cutbacks was initiated, it was predicted that their impact would be remarkably negative on those who are less well off. It is those people who will suffer at the hands of the apostles of fiscal rectitude. We do not need to name the main apostle in terms of that category but he is ably supported, unfortunately, by many more around the Cabinet table. The person who was Minister for Social Welfare in 1992 introduced a number of cuts that were called the dirty dozen, which lived up to their name. However, just as we have witnessed massive advances in technology and in many other areas in western society in recent years, we have also witnessed, unfortunately, a bigger, more cruel type of monster emerging from the shadows of the dirty dozen. We can christen that monster, the "savage 16" because what we saw last week was nothing short of barbaric and savage.