Irish Examiner view: Public inquiry system has squandered its credibility

All our inquiries seem as much about collusion as they do about providing clarity leading to transformative consequences

Robert Watt: May influence the shape of the inevitable pandemic inquiries that we face.

Our system of public inquiries is so dysfunctional that it is hard not to imagine that it is deliberately so, especially as those being investigated are almost invariably public employees and, very often, their relationships with businesses.

Why, after all, would this country’s politicians or bureaucrats establish an efficient system to expose if not wrongdoing then negligence bordering on the criminal?