Penalty points fiasco just a symptom of our national disease

The penalty points controversy has regained a momentum that those defending the status quo, those deeply entrenched traditionalists, probably thought unlikely or at the very least manageable.

Individuals, specifically Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, find themselves challenged in a way that they may not consider appropriate or tolerable as individuals or as office holders.

They are at the centre of a controversy, a kind of then-and-now culture war, that reaches far beyond anything either man has done or said in the penalty points controversy. Their position, and the deeply ingrained, destructive culture that has brought them to that point, is under fire even more than they are. That, however, may offer them little enough comfort this spring morning.