Trust in the political system must be restored

In the wake of the Garda debacle we must question who we can trust.

There are certain things most of us in what we now know as the coping class take for granted. Trust in the institutions of the State and in An Garda Síochána, in particular, used to rank highly.

However, in recent weeks and months, a cascade of events have undermined not only our trust in the Garda but in the Department of Justice. The fact fewer than a handful of gardaí had the integrity and the bottle to try to address incorrect, possibly even criminal behaviour in their midst is an indictment of the whole force. As Edmund Burke is quoted as saying, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.

Our fear now is that the lesson we should learn is to trust no one and nothing. Take nothing at face value. Everyone is out for him or herself. It’s a dog eat dog world, or so we are beginning to think. We all know we have plenty of reasons for feeling thus. Unfortunately, cynicism will be even more widespread — and that is a slippery slope which we do not want to become the norm. Yet everywhere we look we have more reasons for doubt, more reasons for suspicion, more reasons for scepticism and more reasons for cynicism.

Our politicians lied to us to get elected, lie to us after getting elected, and will lie to us again in the future. They bring in new charges and taxes and mislead us on how much we must pay, or where the funds will go; for example, water charges and property tax.

However, they continue to excessively reward themselves on the basis of the titles they carry, not on their own meagre talents. Why should we trust them?

Our banks have lied to us and cheated us, both individually and as a nation. Yet we need our banks, or at least, we need a financial system, and unless we can stop the clock and start again we must find a way to work with this one.

Except this time there must be a balance of power. We need them and they need us — they need to show it by their actions not by speaking out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.

Pfizer is trying to take over AstraZeneca, a major UK pharmaceutical company. They are getting a hard time. Why? People, even some politicians, learn from past events. Another US multinational took over a major UK household name a few years ago and reneged on a commitment that it would not shut down manufacturing plants.

We know government wastes a lot of the taxes we pay. We also know there are allegedly many folk who dodge paying taxes. But how far should government be allowed to go to recover those taxes owed? Should Revenue personnel have unbridled ability to seize someone’s personal property without due process?

David Cameron, the British prime minister, is now suggesting that if revenue and customs officials cannot have access to your bank account to take whatever taxes they claim you owe, government will have to increase taxes for everyone. What a load of old codswallop.

Not only that, but he wants to take money from joint accounts even if the money is effectively owned by the compliant person and not the alleged miscreant. It’s a nuclear response to an administrative problem.

It’s a licence for this or any government in the future to seize money from people’s accounts that they do not owe, simply to make up a general government shortfall.

As I said, it’s a matter of trust and we simply do not have that level of trust, and nor do they in the UK.

However, when all is said and done, we need to trust. But we must have due cause for sustaining that trust. Right now we do not have that. There needs to be checks and balances.