For Justice, a serious wake-up call akin to a black card

As a report card, you could hardly get much worse. Secretive. Closed. Inward looking. Limited learning capacity. Not taking responsibility. Unable to see where things went wrong. Needs to fundamentally change.

For any secondary school student this would be aserious wake-up call, but for the Department of Justice its akin to the GAA black card. It’s no surprise then that its head — secretary general Brian Purcell — has had to step aside. But, as Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday said, that’s only a start.

The report stresses that this is a cultural problem, one that is so deep it is “part of its DNA”. That will take more than one 21-page report to change, something the minister says she is aware of. It is something she is battling in the other key agency of justice: the gardaí. Indeed, the review group highlights this “shared culture of secrecy” in both agencies.