Inevitable resignation - Expediency trumps conscience

LAST night’s resignation of Defence Minister Willie O’Dea was as inevitable as it was belated. It would be better if it could be said that Mr O’Dea left office with his dignity intact but that, regrettably, cannot be.

That was pointlessly squandered in the months since he acknowledged he had made what he insists was an error. It would have been better too to be able to say that his resignation came in an honourable effort to serve the high standards public affairs depend on but no, he was forced from office by political imperatives rather than conscience.

Mr O’Dea says he made nothing more than an error but to describe giving a misleading, inaccurate affidavit to the High Court as an error tests the charity of language to its very limit and is, frankly, implausible.