Watchdog has lost its bite

THE Progressive Democrats are coming under increasing pressure to apply their much lauded principles of integrity to Bertie’s spot of bother. This is unfair to the PDs as they abandoned such principles long ago.

When asked, on RTÉ’s Tonight with Vincent Browne on January 24, 2005, why the PDs did not act when Ray Burke lied to the Dáil in 1997, PD Senator Tom Morrissey replied: “We’re not in the business of asking for heads on plates anymore. When we did, what thanks did the electorate ever give us? We’re not there as a watchdog anymore.”

Anthony Sheridan