Penalty points scandal - Let’s learn the lessons this time

In the last 30 years we’ve had a plethora of tribunals, commissions, investigations and reports, so many in fact it is hard to understand why we do not live in a perfect society.

A lot of dirty linen has been washed in public and, therefore, we should be perfectly placed to build an ideal, exemplary way of living, one even the very odd Scandinavian might envy.

Some of those look-in-the-mirror purges, none of them court cases, were: the infanticide-provoked, misogyny-fuelled Kerry Babies Inquiry; the Hamilton Beef Tribunal; the McCracken Tribunal into payments to politicians by Ben Dunne; Mahon and Moriarty — planning and political corruption; Lindsay on contaminated blood; Barr on Abbeylara; Morris on Garda mafiosi in Donegal; the Travers Report on overcharging at nursing homes — the bill, a relatively moderate €500m; Ferns on child abuse; Smithwick on Garda collusion with the IRA; Baker-Tilly into procurement practices at Córas Iompair Éireann; the Ryan and Murphy reports; and far, far too many others, on institutionalised abuse of children and, of course, McAleese on the Magdalen Laundries. On top of all of those there have been reports, investigations, and even the odd commission on health services, education, medical malpractice.