She was heckled and harangued when she addressed each conference to a greater or lesser degree and the principle bone of contention seems to have been the Minister’s admission that funding won’t be available, at least this year to fulfil all of Fianna Fáil’s election promises when it comes to education.

Education is one area where the forward-looking country does not skimp but the current attitude is symptomatic of a wider malaise in Irish public policy. Those in power do not seem to grasp the simple concept of spending more now to earn more later.

In every area of public policy there is a worrying short-termism taking hold. We hear much of our social disorder problems but there seems to be no connect with our poor funding of education and various other socially inclusive programmes. Instead we want to ban fun and build super-prisons.

When it comes to investment in education we have slipped in relative terms to 29th out of 30 developed countries according to the OECD. There is no free schooling in Ireland today, class sizes are too big and school buildings are totally inadequate. This is despite the fact that Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world.

The same is true of the health service. The truth is that a country that is near the top in terms of income should also be near the top in terms of service provision. If it is not then those who govern that country are not doing the job as well or efficiently as they could and should be. A huge increase in relative wealth over recent years should have seen a huge improvement in the level of public services.

The sums just don’t add up.

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