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”.