John Fleming, the west Cork businessman who began his career making sheds and ended up owing the banks €1 billion – the tab for which we will be picking up, no doubt – is a great example of how the other half is dealing with the recession. Whereas you and I have to pinch and scrape, John Fleming can still call on plenty of spare coins – despite his massive debt. A few years ago Fleming was the 75th wealthiest person in Ireland, worth over €138 million. Now apparently he has fallen to 104th in the Sunday Times Rich List and still has close to €60 million in personal wealth. In other words times may be ‘baddish’ but Fleming, like most of Ireland’s rich, has ring-fenced his core wealth so that it will be untouched by the collapse in his building empire. It’s not NAMA we need, it’s expropriation.