The subject of Ireland’s debt has occupied the front pages of many a British newspaper over the past week. But nowhere has the vitriol against the country’s government been more strongly expressed than in the Irish media. The Irish Daily Star set the tone this week with its pithy headline: “Useless Gobshites” .

The Irish Independent reported this week that the average household will be paying €4,600 a year in extra taxes and charges by the end of the government's plan http://bit.ly/h2tWzw. The figure was extrapolated from the government's announced €15bn package of tax hikes and swingeing spending cuts, which include €3bn in social welfare cuts and 25,000 public sector job losses.