Fitzgerald Is Gone- But Corruption Remains

The Fine Gael PR machine has gone into over-drive to describe Francis Fitzgerald as a good woman who was thrown to a howling mob.

The reality is that she was aware of a campaign of vile slander which the Garda Commissioner was directing against Maurice McCabe – and did nothing.

Leo Varadkar supported her to the bitter end.

The last week has seen a display of the worst forms of cynicism from the conservative parties.

They pretend a concern about the corruption and dark techniques deployed by senior Garda management – but they do nothing to uproot it.

Fianna Fáil are no different from Fine Gael in this regard. They voted confidence in the former Garda Commissioner Noirin O Sullivan – even after it was known that senior Gardai had spread vile allegations against Maurice McCabe

Instead of sacking her, she was let retire on a lump sum of €300,000 and an annual pension of €90,000.

The reason why FF and FG behave like this is that their policies helped to create the deep and dark state apparatus that is centred on the Department of Justice. They have no intention now of dismantling it.

More than a decade ago, it was revealed that Garda in Donegal were involved in planting explosives and in framing a person for a non-existent murder that turned out to be a hit and run traffic accident.

Yet another tribunal – led by Justice Morris – was set up in 2002 but no charges were ever brought against the Gardai involved.

They were allowed to quietly retire and there was no attempt to punish the senior Gardai responsible for these activities.

In the past year, allegations have surfaced about the misappropriation of funds at the Garda training college – but no one has been charged.

There have been over a million and a half false breath tests which caused 15,000 ordinary citizens to be wrongfully convicted.

But the acting Commissioner of the Gardaí, Donal O’Cualain, has said there are no grounds for criminal prosecution. He has even claimed that it would be too costly to even investigate the matter properly.

The Gardaí removed the penalty points of individuals who are friendly to them, including those of the editor of the Irish Independent. By pure co-incidence, he forced a journalist who was critical of the police, out of the paper. Yet again, nothing was done.

The reality is that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have spent a week playing cynical games – but once the play acting is over, the corruption remains.

And neither have the slightest intention of doing anything about it.