Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on the Right Hook this evening that he 'would have been in favour of frontloading the austerity about three years ago.' He went on to say 'I think when Enda got in, in the majority that he got in, the real pain should have been taken in the first year or two. He should have been out there doing a Haughey on it: the numbers were much worse than we were ever to believe, you could have blamed Fianna Fail, and the world and his mother in the first two years.

Now, in the political process it’s getting a bit late. To be fair, I think, they have done a reasonable job. But have we really reduced public spending? No we haven’t. My personal bugbear, and I know I’ll get letters saying why don’t you hand over your children’s allowance? But we hand out children’s allowance to everybody in the country. It’s mad.'

He also feels 'it's hard to justify' the current 9 per cent hospitality tax for tourists. You can listen back to the rest of the interview below...