Ming’s actions over driving licence points controversy are bizarre

BACK in December I opened my weekly column in this newspaper with the following sentences: “Well done to independent TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Luke “Ming” Flanagan and Joan Collins for trying to perform a public service in the Dáil this week.

“The four tried as best they could to highlight what seems to be a scandal, on the basis of the information available to date: the “termination” or quashing of penalty points delivered to errant motorists, apparently on the basis of who they are or the power or influence that they hold over senior members of the gardaí.”

I’d like to amend those lines now, but only in this respect: four becomes three and the name of Luke “Ming” Flanagan is removed. Flanagan has been revealed as a beneficiary of the very practice about which he complained so vocally and vigorously, going so far as to accuse the gardaí of corruption. Twice he had his own penalty points removed. He tried blaming others — a garda who “contacted” or “bumped into” him and who “insisted” that he seek to have the points removed and a council official who allegedly intervened with the gardaí to stop points being processed — instead of taking responsibility for his own actions.