Quotes from an article penned by Professor John Crown in yesterday’s Sunday Independent. (My emphasis)
“I know I will be accused of wandering outside my sphere of competence when I say this, but my 15 years in Ireland as a returned emigrant, as a doctor working in the health service, and as a concerned observer of our system of government, has forced me to conclude that we are a failed political entity.”
“At the core of our public governance is a dysfunctional interface between inexpert ministers and senior civil servants who have generally risen to the top of their departments on the strength of their adroitness at navigating its bureaucracy. The ministers are unfortunately drawn exclusively from a cohort of generally mediocre, frequently nepotistic TDs, whose entree to national politics was based not on a grasp of the big issues of state, but on their ability to manipulate a local constituency party machine. These observations explain the now-exposed incompetence of our Government, an incompetence which was obscured from our view by the Celtic Bubble.”
Welcome to the world of Public Inquiry Professor.
I do like the professor’s use of the english language, particularly the reference to senior civil servants ‘adroitness at navigating its bureaucracy’ which I take to mean their ability to lick ass! His description of Irish politicians speaks for itself. Excellent stuff.
Professor Crown hit the button.
I recently came to the conclusion – and its probably self evident (I’m a slow learner!) – that politicians (and certainly Irish politicians of this generation) are not competent to run a country. The only thing they can be considered anyway competent at (and sometimes fail) is getting elected and staying elected. All actions and utterances are geared toward that end. It certainly has nothing to do with public service, patriotism or idealism.