Coalition catastrophes - Abysmal lack of political leadership

AS the Coalition stumbles from debacle to debacle, it is hard to avoid the perception of governance by crisis management.

In the past 10 days alone a reeling public has witnessed an appalling vista of corruption in elements of the Garda Síochána; loss of a second expert to whip the country's shambolic health service into shape; failure to crack down on widely known abuse of frail and vulnerable elderly people in nursing homes; and the terrible deaths of five teenage schoolgirls, all victims of a State-run bus service that lacks safety belts because the authorities deem them to be too costly.

The one constant underlying this litany of catastrophes has been an abysmal lack of political leadership. From the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste down, the failure to come to grips with such major problems is lamentable.