DURING the week Bertie Ahern made an extraordinary admission about costing the State a fortune.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of public order offences have been on the increase in recent years.

Michael McDowell is entitled to think that he is doing a good job, but it is puerile on his part to dismiss his critics as “a whole load of armchair generals who know nothing”, or are “blindly ignorant of the facts”.