Toothless response to Mahon report

It is an absolute certainty that if a Mahon Tribunal-like report were published in any self-respecting, functional democracy there would have been immediate arrests and police investigations.

In Ireland the response was depressingly predictable. A copy of the report was sent to the DPP, the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Commissioner and the toothless Standards in Public Office Commission.

There was the usual fake anger from politicians mouthing meaningless Fr. Ted-like utterances like ‘down with this sort of thing’ before heading off on their two weeks Easter holiday.

Some commentators called for heavy fines to be imposed on those named in the report, some called for the Criminal Assets Bureau to investigate, while others called for the pensions of those named to be withdrawn.

None of these suggestions will be acted upon, that’s not how things are done in our dysfunctional democracy.

We can see this from the non-response of the above-mentioned state authorities to the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal Report last year.

The failure to properly respond to the Mahon Tribunal Report and countless other reports and scandals in the past tells us, and the rest of the world, exactly what we are as a country. A two-bit, backward, banana republic pretending to be a First World democratic state.

Anthony Sheridan

Cobh

Co Cork