The Dáil debate on extending excise duty cuts was entirely performative, featuring a Government pretending it had a plan and a main Opposition party going ever further down the populist rabbit-hole.

Ireland’s economic opportunities have been transformed by the vast resources provided by multinational corporation tax, but its politics have been distorted by it. Political debate focuses on how much should be given away, with little thought of the costs. The price of yesterday’s extension – €407 million – or the €1.3 billion-plus spent on the cuts since March are afterthoughts.

The Coalition, blessed with a budget situation unique in Europe, is run on the basis of political expediency, rather that prioritisation.

The risk here is of frittering money away and blowing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in key infrastructure and genuine improvements in public services. When corporation tax finally tops out, or even falls a bit, what will Ireland have to show for it?

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The Government’s decision to extend the excise duty cuts has been justified by senior ministers on a variety of grounds, one more convoluted than the next. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was a temporary intervention and the extension of the cuts was designed to “manage the transition in a responsible and sustainable way at a time of great global economic uncertainty.”

Tánaiste Simon Harris said it was a........

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