Corrosive lack of capacity to hold power to accoun

THERE was a synergy of sorts on Thursday between President Higgins interview in the Financial Times and the hearings in the Public Accounts Committee that day about the saga of misgovernance and possibly miscreance at the Dublin Dockland Development Authority (DDDA).

Another story yesterday about the difficulties within Fianna Fáil on agreeing a position on the Government’s proposed abortion legislation fits the bill as well.

They are all symptoms of a society that lacks the basic wherewithal to govern itself in an open way, in which freedom of ideas is vindicated effectively and the obligation to account is assured.