ÉAMON Ó Cuív is a very prescient man. Here he is in the Dáil on Thursday morning, before news broke about leak-gate.

“I note that the comprehensive spending review will be announced outside the House today. The capital spending review was also announced outside the House. Can the Tánaiste confirm that the budget will be announced in the House? Does the Government intend to announce it at a press conference in the media centre?”

Little did Éamon know.

The Tánaiste confirmed the “the budget will be announced in the House”. But he omitted to say which House: Dáil or Bundestag? Environment Minister Big Phil Hogan must have thought of 1995, when, as a junior minister, he mistakenly faxed some budget details to the media. He immediately resigned.

And he only leaked to the Evening Herald,not the Berliner Morgenpost.