The first and most important thing to be said about the ongoing penalty points controversey is that it is state corruption on a massive scale.
And because it is corruption on a massive scale the lies and hypocrisy surrounding the issue are also on a massive scale.
Take the dishonesty and hypocrisy of Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton for example. She was asked a very simple question on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday.
How did the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter come to have Garda information about a private citizen?
Burton refused to answer the question and instead robustly defended the Shatter/Garda report saying that is was a great example of government transparency and accountability.
She was asked again.
The report is being sent on to the Garda Inspectorate and the Dail Justice Committee…waffle…
She was asked again.
I’m not going to jump to conclusions based on what’s in the media…waffle…
She was asked again.
The key issue in this country is to get people back to work again…waffle…
The presenter finally gave up.
You don’t seem to want to focus on what the Minister actually said.
Burton went on to demonstrate a good degree of political stupidity by constantly returning to her dishonest waffle.
We have to look at this in the round. It’s an important issue for our democracy. First of all we have to look at the issue of road safety.
At this point her fellow panelists were openly laughing at her in contempt.
Burton’s despicable performance was similar to that of Fianna Fail politicians who lined up to defend the liar Ahern.
None of this, of course, is unusual or unexpected. Ireland is, after all, an intrinsically corrupt state. All politicians who come to power must decide whether to stand by their principles or defend the corrupt system.
Joan Burton, in common with the vast majority of her fellow politicians, has obviously abandoned her political principles in favour of remaining within the corrupt system.
A tiny minority of politicians like Roisin Shortall and Neasa Childers do stand by their principles and opt out of the rotten system but they pay the price of immediate ostracisation by their political colleagues.
Neasa Childers, I felt, accurately summed up how it feels when a politician is faced with the decision of defending or abandoning our corrupt political system.
I felt at that point my position was completely lacking in integrity and indeed a sort of corruption if I were to stay in that situation where I was feeling shame basically about what they were telling me.
I wonder if Joan Burton is feeling shame or is she still trying to convince herself that, on balance, she’s still a politician of principle.
It’s the reason I left the Labour Party before the last election. I could not stand by to see this once proud movement be crushed by the hypocrisy which is apparent now in coalition with FG. Because of my decision there are some in Dail Eireann, for whom I once had respect, that I will never work for again. One, yesterday at a charity public photo op in Galway, deliberately avoided my eye contact because of his embarrassment. I used to think Joan Burton was the bees knees and our answer to the likes of FF snakes. Now she has burnt her boats. Sad.