Conventional wisdom has it that this is the most highly taxed state in the world. It's not true. It's not even the most highly taxed state in the European Union, as the Commission's Eurostat report confirmed this week. Ireland came last.
The difference between first and last in the list is striking. Sweden, at the top, takes 54 per cent of GDP; Denmark, with 53 per cent, comes next. The average is 42 per cent.
Our tax and social security payments amount to 34 per cent of GDP: almost eight points below the EU average; lower than such vaunted lowtax regimes as Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
The catch, for most of us, is that the PAYE sector pays more than any other, as we were reminded on Wednesday by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell.
The graph which appeared in this newspaper under the heading "Revenue Collected" showed these returns: income tax, £5.2 billion; VAT, £3.7 billion; excise, £2.5 billion, and corporation tax, £1.69 billion.
Capital taxes - halved in last year's Budget - barely registered. They amounted to £132 million for capital gains, £89 million for acquisitions. No penalties were imposed for false returns or failure to submit returns.
And, as Mary Canniffe wrote here, the Comptroller reported weaknesses, failures and inadequacies in assessment and collection.
Tax-evaders generally were gently treated. There were three successful prosecutions in 1997. A total of £281 million was written off, including £73 million in VAT, £41 million corporation tax, and £55 million health and insurance contributions by the self-employed.
I give these figures because several accounts of the Comptroller's report gave the impression that it was all about welfare fraud and overtime in the public service.
The fraud amounted to £14.5 million, for which there were almost 120 charges. The overtime of about £100 million went largely to gardai and prison officers.
The different treatment of different frauds carries its own message: if you want to rob the State, go for the big one. You're more likely to get away with it; and a lot less likely to be abused in the media.
As for the £75 million overtime paid to the gardai and prison officers, the bill would have been lower, and this would now be a more civilised place, if the advice of John Lonergan and Paul O'Mahony had been heeded long ago.
Mr Lonergan, interviewed by Catherine Foley in Educa- tion and Living, repeated his conviction about the causes of crime and the need to break the cycle of disadvantage; he and Dr O'Mahony live with the consequences of failure.
But, as the Governor of Mountjoy reflected: "With the weakening of the churches' influence, a vacuum has developed. You are depending on the media.
"But those within the media generally come from the same background and are not sympathetic to the question of justice."
Mr Lonergan is right: far from being sympathetic to justice, many in this industry are cheer-leaders for an ugly combination of old-fashioned prejudice and modern sleaze.
It's a tendency that makes exceptions all the more welcome, like Tony Connolly's admirable reports on RTE1 on the racism in central and eastern Europe from which many have fled to these shores.
The exposure of life in Romania and the Czech Republic shows up the shallowness, ignorance and selfishness of reactions to immigrants in many quarters, not least in the media.
There was evidence of another form of typecasting on Morning Ireland yesterday when David Hanly was taken by surprise.
What surprised him was the humane and rational approach of Eva Coyle to questions of morality. The Catholic Church's One Bread One Body was being discussed.
"I would rather see the Catholic Church tackling the immorality of large numbers of people living in poverty in our `tiger economy'," said Mrs Coyle. Hanly feigned shock. The president of the Irish Countrywomen's Association, bedad.
"One cannot help but think they are out of step with the reality of people's lives," said Mrs Coyle. What's sauce for the bishops is sauce for their patronising successors on the radio.
There was, of course, another retreat to the 1950s this week when David Andrews gave a fair imitation of some of the bone-headed and unlamented ministers of other days.
Mr Andrews, whose ministerial career in this Government began badly and is now rushing downhill at a depressing rate, behaved as if neither Pat MacKernan nor the opposition had any right to question him.
Coming from someone with a more impressive record, speeches beginning "I am the Minister" might be endured, if not excused. From Mr Andrews, in one of the least talented governments for decades, it simply sounded insulting.
This is a period of uncertainty at home and abroad. Leadership is needed, and the services of experienced, toughminded public servants like the Secretary-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
We cannot now blame history, geography or the crowd next door for our mistakes. We're grown up and well-off. If mistakes are made, in negotiations with our EU colleagues or on highly sensitive developments in Northern Ireland, we have no one to blame but ourselves.