OECD Irish Public Service Report: The Buck Still Stops Nowhere; Brian Cowen has no record of challenging conventional wisdom

The key message of the recently published OECD report on the Irish Public Service, is not that Irish public sector workers cannot produce outputs comparable with private sector counterparts or that the quality of some public services are not of an acceptable international standard but that the political and senior management have been seriously lacking. The bad news is that the Irish system of governance where the Buck Stops Nowhere, is not going to change despite the new political leadership at the top. Brian Cowen has no record of challenging conventional wisdom and besides, the OECD report suggests that Irish parliamentarians have shown very little interest in using the reviews sent to them to hold public sector management to account. The same politicians have since 1997, headed the pay rankings in the Irish public sector and they have had more pay adjustments than any other group in the sector.To put it simply, despite the provision of research services in recent years, the "messenger-boy" syndrome of local clientism still dominates Irish politics and selecting 35 ministers - some with titles but no real jobs - from just over half the Dáil membership of 166, produces managers who have had no experience of management. By Michael Hennigan.

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Contributor: Boris Demidov
Published Date: May 7, 2008