Apathy in society - Not caring costs us far too much

It is difficult to understand the soul-deep motivations of a society, or the principles that inform it, when a household charge can provoke a “national rally” while the confirmation that the most powerful political party in our recent history was a shameless cabal of crooks does little more than stir up the usual impotent outrage from the usual sources.

It would be reassuring to use last year’s electoral humiliation of Fianna Fáil to reject that argument but, let’s not pretend again, that whipping was provoked by economic not moral or ethical collapse.

The Mahon Report generated a lot of high dudgeon but — like our banking crisis — little direct, dissuasive action. Experience suggests that we would be unwise to take comfort in the idea that it is early days yet. After all, the tribunal first sat 15 years ago.