LAST MONTH, a 49-year-old Limerick man settled a case he took against the State and number of its agencies, including the gardaí and the DPP. The settlement is believed to be a six-figure sum.

Coming hard on the heels of the deeply damaging public row between the Garda Ombudsman and gardaí over the handling of undercover informants, today’s front-page revelations again focus on a dysfunctional system urgently in need of reform.