Scandal must be a catalyst for change

The choreography of an Irish scandal is well established. The draw-the-sting, smoke-and-daggers shuffle-and-dodge is predictable and all too well rehearsed. The lineage is pretty constant and unfortunately equally predictable.

It goes back a long way but the way in which senior Fianna Fáil figures selectively leaked — 20 years ago this July — details of the Beef Tribunal report, the very, very few that showed them in anything approaching a tolerable light, was probably the first use of the most intensive media distractions and covering fire in modern times.

That self-serving, late-night leaking broke an assurance given to Fianna Fáil’s then coalition partners Dick Spring’s Labour Party and led directly to the collapse of that administration on Nov 16, 1994. Albert Reynolds immediately resigned as Fianna Fáil leader and was within days replaced by Bertie Ahern. Ahern’s placeman, dig-out subscriber and staff officer in his Drumcondra inner circle, former CRC chief executive Paul Kiely, is at the epicentre of this week’s scandal. Once again Ahern’s legacy has a negative impact on public life and this is surely another occasion to quote the greatest political analyst of all — Shakespeare: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” So much for how we got to “where we are” but what now, what next?