Kenny’s response to the Garda crisis will define his legacy

As any Sir Humphrey Appleby, GCB, KBE, MVO, MA (Oxon) worthy of his or her Leinster House access-all-areas pass will confirm, the best way to kill off persistent, difficult ideas is to exile them to the never-never land of consultation, to divert them up endless cul-de-sacs and, eventually, watch them drown in a quagmire of earnest, impractical reports or costings.

Despite all of the inquiries, all of the pressing reports in preparation, all of the anticipated interrogations and great frustration around the collapse of Garda credibility, the Department of Justice’s loss of its moral authority and our dysfunctional administration of justice and policing, despite even a justice minister’s and a Garda commissioner’s resignation, Sir Humphrey’s age-old ploy of delay and conquer cannot be allowed to work this time.

This must be asserted despite what seems a newfound energy and enthusiasm at the highest levels to at last, at long last, confront the issues highlighted so shockingly in the Morris Report a decade ago and repeated so publicly and so very disastrously in recent months.