More than a thousand anti-household tax protesters took to the streets of Dublin last month, to march on Dail Eireann before the politicians headed for their extended holidays. Despite poor weather and short notice, the turnout was impressive and the mood was one of anger and determination.

It was a timely reminder to Minister Phil Hogan and the Fine Gael/Labour government that the largest mass movement against austerity, backed up by almost 700,000 non-payers was still going from strength to strength.

The Irish Independent ran yet another of its repetitive stories on Mick Wallace – but it illustrated it with a picture of Richard Boyd Barrett speaking with a megaphone.

In the days preceding, it ran stories about how Joe Higgins TD had claimed €900 in travel expenses to speak at anti-household charges meetings around the country. It never mentioned that Junior Minister, Brian Hayes, had made similar claims for travelling outside his constituency.