More depressing news from the sometimes shameless realm of Irish public life: RTE has just reported that “The Standards in Public Office Commission has decided not to investigate the awarding of contracts by Minister Martin Cullen to PR consultant Monica Leech.”I wonder just how ethically dubious a Minister’s actions have to be for this toothless quango to bother investigating them? (See below for my diatribe on the Leech issue). Anybody with a functioning brain stem recognises that the appointment of Monica Leech as Cullen’s PR stinks to high heaven.I also note that one of the Commission‘s members is Emily O’Reilly, who received plenty of plaudits from bien pensant columnists for her self-promoting lecture on declining moral values in Ireland (see my previous entry on my take on her lecture). How she can continue to occupy the moral high ground (where she seems so comfortable) while giving someone like Cullen a pass is beyond me. But as with Cullen, I’m sure she’ll have no problems staying on.