Transparency, and the lack thereof - We pay a huge price for apathy

By any yardstick the 2002 compensation deal for victims of clerical abuse agreed by education minister Michael Woods was disastrous — unless of course, your loyalties lie with the congregations who have dodged their responsibilities in what was to have been a 50/50 burden-sharing agreement.

The Woods deal was, amazingly, finalised without any input from attorney general Michael McDowell.

His cabinet colleague finance minister Charlie McCreevy refused to sign it. Time has vindicated McDowell and McCreevy and shown Woods as at best naive or at worst a willing dupe.