Justice in crisis - Kenny must drive reform programme

How Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Government uses the opportunity presented by Alan Shatter’s resignation to restore integrity to the administration of justice and our police service will define its legacy as much as its response to the economic crisis.

Its performance in that long-overdue project will have a decisive impact on its re-election prospects. It may also be the last opportunity politicians of Mr Kenny’s generation have to lead the kind of change, the kind of empowering reform social democrats around the world have promised for decades but largely failed to delivered. That the younger, most obviously ambitious ministers — Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney — were not involved in yesterday’s changes just re-emphasises that their senior colleagues may not have many more opportunities to make an impact of historical significance. Put simply, it is time Mr Kenny earned the votes secured by promising radical, game-changing reform before the last election.

Recognising that great challenge is, however, much easier than realising it. When Frances Fitzgerald was named Minister for Justice yesterday she would have known the ministry is one of the most demanding and important in our democracy. She would also have been aware this tenure will be comparatively short — less than two years — but that the challenges of rebuilding trust, changing an unacceptable Garda culture embedded over generations and pruning deadwood, some corrupt some just intransigent, from An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice and our legal-justice framework is as close to entering the lions’ den as any politician has been asked to do in recent administrations. She must also know the task is unavoidable.