Confine use of State cars to State business

STATE cars with garda drivers are routinely used to drop children to school, do the weekly shopping, transport families to race meetings, collect pizzas, etc. Money is no object when it’s coming out of the public purse.

On the weekend’s Sunday Supplement show on Today FM, Education Minister Mary Hanafin explained that the role of the gardaí is not primarily to drive Government ministers but rather to provide personal protection. She cited as justification the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in September 2003, who was stabbed to death while out shopping alone.

It is very easy to get used to the trappings and privileges of power and politicians like Ms Hanafin will always be able to come up with glib answers to justify their own excesses.