Liam Dullaghan

One thing I've not heard anyone answer is, beyond the €250mn reduction in fuel taxes already in effect (costing the exchequer €4mn a day) where the shortfall should be made up from if we are to cut taxes substantially further? Spending on schools, hospitals, road maintenance?

The blocking of the distribution of fuel is a sinister and despicable attack on our economy and our society. This is not a lawless country. The laws of the land must and will be applied without fear.

Ireland's personal taxation regime is the second worst among 38 peer countries according to the Tax Foundation. High marginal taxes (paid at very modest thresholds) have been in place since 2008. There has been almost no improvement over two decades despite having the resources to do so - a relentless rise in government expenditure has been prioritised year after year. A simple example illustrates how bad it is. The average electrician or plumber working for construction company will be on the top marginal rate, whereby the state takes more of every additional euro than the person gets to keep. If he/she wants to earn self employed income, the government will take more than the worker, and a tax return will have to be filed, involving time and/or accountancy fees. Is it any wonder finding tradespeople is hard?

The Space went great tonight. The NASA mission was a bust. No imagery of the flight crew inside the rocket. No comms from the flight crew. Sent or received. Only thing NASA kept showing was their Solar Array Module. In crisp 4k HD, and the camera mounted to the outside just showing the bottom of it, and that was glitchy. A lot of people turned it off as they believed no one actually occupied the rocket. I believe them.