This is a brilliant piece of research. The article connects many individual failures and shows how they form part of a much larger issue. It challenged me to look beyond government funding and capability
I know it’s only a small part of the obscene picture you paint, but in the matter of the electric buses I always ask the question; how is it possible to sell a large fleet of electric buses to a public body without having the charging conversation? It absolutely must have arisen in the course of the transaction - and still the deal was done!
"nobody can be held to account for outcomes because the dispersion of accountability makes outcomes unattributable"
In the last General Election, the Minister for Finance, who was a candidate, circulated a leaflet asking 'Do you want this area's voice heard?' (if so, vote for that Minister).
It seems to me we cannot mitigate our chronic failure as a state, as anslysed here, without considering the parliamentary electoral system, with its super-low Effective Threshold and reliance exclusively on territorially-defined, multi-member parliamentary constituencies.
Then at a more profound level, there's the understanding, based on a reading of the Preamble to the Constitution,and on Article 6, that this Irish state exists to give glory to God. Anything beyond that is extra effort: the state fulfilled its raison d'etre to day Bunreacht ma hÉireann became operative.
Brilliant once again! It’s like reading a chapter from ‘The Third Policeman’ but it’s not even the slightest bit funny because the surrealism underpinning the story is very real.
Diagnosis is sound, but how do we unlock the state's capacity to deliver? Have you had a conversation with the Department of the Taoiseach to relocate the Slaintecare initiative? Do we need a Department of Infrastructure with the leverage to cut across siloes; in the same way we have a Department for Public Expenditure?
"As I have said many times before, it has to be built deliberately by people willing to construct the boring machinery of delivery and outcomes, and then be willing to hand the credit to whoever comes after them."
Thank you Sinèad.with the figures given on direct and indirect employees of the state we are nor going to solve this by an election.It is worth considering detaching oneself from the state , do not save the normies,do not interrupt their race towards destruction of which they have a proven record.
Loads of interest and that seems to hit the target very squarely. This sentence particularly struck me.
"Bravery was never the missing ingredient, leverage was."
I've been thinking about the apparent ability of Ireland to get things done when those things were paid for by the EU - a lot of motorways and other roads in particular, but I still see the odd sign about water projects that were funded by the EU around the place. Perhaps that was because the EU had leverage over Ireland to ensure that these projects would happen, or else the money wouldn't be forthcoming?
So I wonder whether the huge Corporation Tax receipts are in some way part of the problem. They make the Irish State less reliant on its citizens and voters to also act as taxpayers, and so the voters lose the leverage that paying the bills might otherwise give them.
It's interesting that the impetus for Sláintecare came in the interregnum between the state being awash with money from the Celtic Tiger property boom, and the state being awash with money from Corporation Tax receipts.
Not wishing for Ireland to have to become bankrupt again before its people gain some leverage over their state, but how else might the people bring some leverage to bear to create some change in the system?
Superb article. Interesting to compare to way Northern Ireland is run with free health care,free education and good infrastructure. So please ask the question why go for independence when the UK provides better provisions for its people including defense. And remember Ireland was not a colony as an Irish chieftain Dermot MacMurragh invited Welshman Norman Strongbow to invade Ireland. Nor were Scotland and Wales colonies.
This is a brilliant piece of research. The article connects many individual failures and shows how they form part of a much larger issue. It challenged me to look beyond government funding and capability
I know it’s only a small part of the obscene picture you paint, but in the matter of the electric buses I always ask the question; how is it possible to sell a large fleet of electric buses to a public body without having the charging conversation? It absolutely must have arisen in the course of the transaction - and still the deal was done!
"nobody can be held to account for outcomes because the dispersion of accountability makes outcomes unattributable"
In the last General Election, the Minister for Finance, who was a candidate, circulated a leaflet asking 'Do you want this area's voice heard?' (if so, vote for that Minister).
It seems to me we cannot mitigate our chronic failure as a state, as anslysed here, without considering the parliamentary electoral system, with its super-low Effective Threshold and reliance exclusively on territorially-defined, multi-member parliamentary constituencies.
Then at a more profound level, there's the understanding, based on a reading of the Preamble to the Constitution,and on Article 6, that this Irish state exists to give glory to God. Anything beyond that is extra effort: the state fulfilled its raison d'etre to day Bunreacht ma hÉireann became operative.
Brilliant once again! It’s like reading a chapter from ‘The Third Policeman’ but it’s not even the slightest bit funny because the surrealism underpinning the story is very real.
Diagnosis is sound, but how do we unlock the state's capacity to deliver? Have you had a conversation with the Department of the Taoiseach to relocate the Slaintecare initiative? Do we need a Department of Infrastructure with the leverage to cut across siloes; in the same way we have a Department for Public Expenditure?
"As I have said many times before, it has to be built deliberately by people willing to construct the boring machinery of delivery and outcomes, and then be willing to hand the credit to whoever comes after them."
Thank you Sinèad.with the figures given on direct and indirect employees of the state we are nor going to solve this by an election.It is worth considering detaching oneself from the state , do not save the normies,do not interrupt their race towards destruction of which they have a proven record.
Very interesting and well written take on what’s going on in Ireland right now. Thanks
Brilliant stuff
Sinead should be on Leaving Cert Curriculum next year ?
Loads of interest and that seems to hit the target very squarely. This sentence particularly struck me.
"Bravery was never the missing ingredient, leverage was."
I've been thinking about the apparent ability of Ireland to get things done when those things were paid for by the EU - a lot of motorways and other roads in particular, but I still see the odd sign about water projects that were funded by the EU around the place. Perhaps that was because the EU had leverage over Ireland to ensure that these projects would happen, or else the money wouldn't be forthcoming?
So I wonder whether the huge Corporation Tax receipts are in some way part of the problem. They make the Irish State less reliant on its citizens and voters to also act as taxpayers, and so the voters lose the leverage that paying the bills might otherwise give them.
It's interesting that the impetus for Sláintecare came in the interregnum between the state being awash with money from the Celtic Tiger property boom, and the state being awash with money from Corporation Tax receipts.
Not wishing for Ireland to have to become bankrupt again before its people gain some leverage over their state, but how else might the people bring some leverage to bear to create some change in the system?
Once again a super bit of writing that is on the nose
Superb article. Interesting to compare to way Northern Ireland is run with free health care,free education and good infrastructure. So please ask the question why go for independence when the UK provides better provisions for its people including defense. And remember Ireland was not a colony as an Irish chieftain Dermot MacMurragh invited Welshman Norman Strongbow to invade Ireland. Nor were Scotland and Wales colonies.