Public service expenses rip-off a perversion of true republicanism

IT is amazing how exercised some people are about John O’Donoghue’s expenses when he was Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism. He provided an abject apology during the week to those who were paying the bills — the taxpayer.

“When I read the detail in the past weeks I was embarrassed that such costs were associated with some of the arrangements made on my behalf,” he said. That sounds like the old story — denounce what happened and blame it on a civil servant.

“I sincerely regret that, although on official duty, such considerable cost were incurred,” he continued. Do you believe that?