Garda crisis - Time for a new culture to be built

Now that the dust has settled after Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s take-no-prisoners Dáil speech, now that all of the tribal indignation and spleen have been vented, the central issues remain unresolved.

The great urgency, the immediacy and daily newsworthiness of the story has fallen back a notch or two but it is essential that the issues raised be resolved. Now that the Punch-and-Judy political points scoring, the discrediting Dáil Donnybrook are out of the way, it may be possible to begin the process of changing how our police force is policed so we never reach this sorry, divisive point again.

To his credit the minister for justice has begun that evolution but, just like his colleague’s Health Minister James Reilly universal health insurance proposals, judgement will have to be deferred until a final set of proposals are made.