Don’t blame minions for the mess

YOUR editorial on the Willie O’Dea affair blames what you call “our tolerance of institutionalised dishonesty” for the problems of the country (January 20).

This is the “we are all to blame” hypothesis that absolves powerful people in government, banks, church, construction, etc, who have done incalculable damage not only to the institutions which they controlled but to society at large.

This attitude also ignores the fact that many in the media acted as cheerleaders for these powerful people. It is, therefore, the very influential and not the ordinary people who have abused the trust placed in them and who, as you say in your editorial, are helping to destroy social cohesion.