LIAM FAY¹ has watched the "Rip Off Ireland" series and he has a chill pill for MC Eddie Hobbs. As Fay sees it, Hobbs

appears all too comfortable in the self-styled role of people's champion and seems to have developed the new-found celebrity messiah's belief that everythig he says shoild be revised upwards in terms of sparkle and insight.

Unfortunately the show's script--written by Hobbs with producers Cilian Fennell and Rachael Moriarty--simply isn't funny, clever or savage enough to justify such arrogant posturing.

Rip-Off Republic is every bit as damaging to the governent as many of its members suspect it to be. However, it's the replays of the weasel words and empty promises of ministers that land the most devastating blows, rather than the presenter's naff quips or lame japes,

In more than one episode, Hobbs misses his chance to clearly suggest what his audience should as an action step. While he may have a million people talking about his show, its impact is as transient as a Kit-Kat commercial,

¹Liam Fay -- "Inflation strikes again" in "Culture" with The Sunday Times, September 4, 2005.

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