We need more than prudent policies

Enda Kenny has told the people that exiting the bailout sends a powerful signal internationally; that now is not the time to change direction and that the future is to be about employment generating enterprise, not personal deal-making.

Apart from the fortitude and patience of the people, the most glaring signal to emerge from Ireland over the past decade is the impunity with which outrageous levels of white collar crime and flagrant corruption can be perpetrated and the obscene amounts of wealth accumulated by services providers as a consequence of the economic collapse.

No individual has been punished in a criminal court for the economic treason that has been inflicted on the country and public trust in so many so-called pillars of society has been gored beyond remediation. Reform of the self-regulated legal services professions has been demanded for well over a decade. But the legal services bill still hunkers like an impotent ghost cowering in a haunted warehouse.