The Magdalene report - Response was totally inadequate

Even though we’ve endured report after report telling us how young and vulnerable people were exposed to evil by those entrusted with their care by the State, tacitly if not directly, Tuesday’s Magdalene report inevitably provoked a strong, passionate reaction.

Unfortunately, the ensuing shame and anguish was exacerbated by Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s fumbling, almost amateur reaction. His initial Dáil response, sincere but terribly inadequate, suggested that he had almost been caught by surprise by the findings.

This impression was strengthened yesterday morning when he announced the Government will seek a “clear strategy and a clear plan” to deal with the findings. Did he or his advisors not understand that they should have been able to announce details of such a plan immediately after publication? That they did not, or thought it unnecessary suggests a deficit in strategic thinking that goes some way to explain so much of the failure and despair in our public life; a despair that provoked some Labour backbenchers yesterday to press for an early and far more satisfactory response.