Social reform - Uneasy with making hard decisions

The entirely predictable furore around child benefit reforms encapsulates so much of the dysfunction and evasion that have damaged this society.

It also feeds the cynicism that almost precludes a political solution to our litany of woe. It certainly suggests to far too many citizens who otherwise might be prepared to engage in politics that there is no valuable, participatory role for them in such a system.

This latest around-the-house-and-mind-the-dresser episode has been provoked by the Mangan report which has languished on Social Protection Minister Joan Burton’s desk for almost a year. Though the system’s defects have been acknowledged for many years there has been little more than selective leaks to, presumably, test the water. Sadly, the Government has shied away from taking the kind of action its mandate for reform demands.