4/12 The Front Pages

News of sub-zero temperatures and financial woes dominate the front pages, as per usual.

“Sub-zero conditions to last for further week” says the doom-laden Irish Times, reporting that ice will replace the snow as the biggest hazard. There is good news weather-wise, but only for people in the west of the country, who will be able to “enjoy” a thaw.

Enjoy. Odd choice of word, that. Do the writers of the Times’ headlines really think that people in the west have so little in their life that watching snow turn to slush is something to “enjoy”?

The Times also reports that the potential coalition parties differ on tax, cuts and what to do about the public sector. No shit: if they agreed on everything, there’d just be the one party.

“Leave taxes alone and cut spending, warn public” is the main headline on the Irish Examiner. Their survey also reveals that most people want to abolish the Seanad and abolish the Croke Park agreement.

There’s a picture on the front of the Examiner of people having to walk down the tram tracks into central Dublin after the weather forced the Luas Green line to terminate at Beechwood Station between Rathmines and Ranelagh. The paper just about resisted pointing out that such a problem would have never happened if Cork was the capital.

Over on the Irish Independent’s front cover we’ve got the headline “Labour and Fine Gael at war over tax hikes” accompanying the story that on Friday the two parties clashed openly and bitterly on the key cuts and tax hikes needed to salvage the economy.

Plus, there’s the same picture of commuters walking down the Luas track as on the front of the Examiner, and there’s the story that X Factor hopeful Mary Byrne offered to do a DNA test to prove that daughter’s father was her former partner.