Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s handling of the Grace case in the 1990s while he was health minister is to be investigated by the long-awaited commission of investigation into the foster abuse scandal.

One of the most frustrating things about trying to move the idea of accountability to the centre of public life is the dance of the seven veils anyone trying to get to the bottom of an important public issue must indulge in to get to something that might, just might, be the truth.