Ending political cronyism

PRAF

Was disappointed to read in the IT about how the culture of political cronyism is continuing in the way people are appointed to state boards.

I had thought that Lab / FG had pledged to end this kind of crass, political interference in state boards.

The articles were not conclusive and seemed to suggest that there has been some progress in this area:
- chairman of new boards have to go before Oireachtas committees
- some, but not all, board appointments have been advertised
- public servants cannot be paid more than 1 salary (i.e. if you are on another board, you only get paid once)
- etc

However, some progress is not enough. We need to end this kind of corrupion.

nesf

Yeah and after that we can solve world hunger. Yeah, I'm a cynic.

Permabear

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PRAF

I thought that this current govt would finally take on the cronyism culture that FF thrived on over the years. Would be a great shame if that momentum was lost.

Lockstep

I don't have a problem with political activists being appointed, unless they're unqualified.

UNless the article can show that appointees by FG/Labour were unqualified or there as nothing more than a sinecure holder, I'm not bothered.

Godge

Lockstep wrote: »

I don't have a problem with political activists being appointed, unless they're unqualified.

UNless the article can show that appointees by FG/Labour were unqualified or there as nothing more than a sinecure holder, I'm not bothered.

+1 to this.

You have to remember that close to 40% of the public voted for FG so you would expect about 40% of the appointees to have FG leanings. A few examples dotted here and there do not prove that there is political cronyism.

Under the previous government, there were people appointed to boards because of personal links who had little or no qualifications for the jobs they were appointed to and there were some people appointed who appeared to have conflicts of interest (DDDA?) Of course, not all who were appointed had these links but it was a generally accepted feature. It is too early to say that the pattern has definitively changed but I would feel from some of the appointments that I have heard of that there has been a significant change.

PRAF

Godge / Lockstep - good points, I suppose the main issue is whether these appointees are qualified or not. At least FG / Lab seem to be subjecting their appointments to some basic level of scrutiny.

However, to be seen to be independent, I would prefer a totally different and more transparent process in place.

I live in hope!

bijapos

Lockstep wrote: »

I don't have a problem with political activists being appointed, unless they're unqualified.

UNless the article can show that appointees by FG/Labour were unqualified or there as nothing more than a sinecure holder, I'm not bothered.

This is madness. Its no wonder state bodies are being run in such a shambolic way when people like yourself accept this. The only way to get the best person suited to a job is to advertise it openly and appoint a person on their merits, not on who they know.

Godge wrote: »

+1 to this.

You have to remember that close to 40% of the public voted for FG so you would expect about 40% of the appointees to have FG leanings. A few examples dotted here and there do not prove that there is political cronyism.

Under the previous government, there were people appointed to boards because of personal links who had little or no qualifications for the jobs they were appointed to and there were some people appointed who appeared to have conflicts of interest (DDDA?) Of course, not all who were appointed had these links but it was a generally accepted feature. It is too early to say that the pattern has definitively changed but I would feel from some of the appointments that I have heard of that there has been a significant change.

36% of people voting FG does not mean that 36% have FG leanings. People vote FG for a number of reasons. The fact is that theye are giving jobs to people who are closely involved with the running of the party or who are giving donations to the party.

Its cronyism and corruption, plain and simple, and as a result of this we, the people are no doubt missing out on a better run country.

I find it diabolical that anyone can actually try to justify this kind of carry on.

BlaasForRafa

Permabear wrote: »

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and stop ministers from gifting things to their own constituencies, like Brendan Howlin moving the Waterford City and County VEC headquarters to Wexford town.

alboco

In one particular year the individual who is chairman of the Equality Authority, Angela Kerrins, received in excess of€ 400,000 salary and benefits for their job as Cheif Executive of Rehab Group.
Where is the logic or equality in this ?

Hayte

Theres no easy answer to this unfortunately. A good start would involve establishing a public register of lobbyists - something which all major parties have advocated I believe but have repeatedly stalled on.

The Dail may also need stricter vetting when it comes to the issuance of long term visitor passes, otherwise it is prone to the same problems that the UK House of Lords is vulnerable to: one in five visitor passes issued by the House of Lords was recently found to be tied to lobbying groups. It has turned into a scandal recently and at the very least shows a disturbing level of access by organisations looking to obtain favorable legislation and have the money to make it happen.

I'm not sure how to get from here to there through politics as there doesn't appear to be any political will to address these problems. I need to give this some more thought over the coming week.

irishh_bob

alboco wrote: »

In one particular year the individual who is chairman of the Equality Authority, Angela Kerrins, received in excess of€ 400,000 salary and benefits for their job as Cheif Executive of Rehab Group.
Where is the logic or equality in this ?

being interested in equality is primarily about paying lip service to high minded pc ideals and offering platitudes , it has little to do with walking the walk which is why its so popular among middle class leftys

anymore

irishh_bob wrote: »

being interested in equality is primarily about paying lip service to high minded pc ideals and offering platitudes , it has little to do with walking the walk which is why its so popular among middle class leftys

Well said Sir !

anymore

alboco wrote: »

In one particular year the individual who is chairman of the Equality Authority, Angela Kerrins, received in excess of€ 400,000 salary and benefits for their job as Cheif Executive of Rehab Group.
Where is the logic or equality in this ?

OOOh !!! You are running the risk here of being charged with a ' Thought Crime' or being charged with Unpolitically Correctedness' !

sarkozy

Going on this discussion, I don't think the problem is so much whether there are or aren't quangos or people of various hues appointed to their boards or staff.

The problem is there is no formal arrangement for the establishment of quangos and the appointment of personnel to avoid either abuse of power or derrogation of governmental duties by taking the easy option.

For example, there should be criteria set out to justify why and how quangos can be established and there should be a fully independent appointments board to remove political interference. It's one thing for a Minister or whoever to encourage someone to apply for a post, or to have someone in mind for one, but it's another to interfere in a clean appointments process that prevents conflicts of interest.

The structure of quangos also needs to be rationalised and cleaned up. Firstly, there are many different kinds of quangos: commercial semi-state agencies, statutory agencies, etc. These can and so provide functions in ways that government's can't quite do, but they're not the answer to everything and too much did the FF government rely on quangos to avoid taking difficult decisions by buying everyone off.

They must also be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis - not of the sort associated with purely economic/business reasons, but the cost and benefit acruing to society as a result. Indeed, it's the case in this country that some quangos have increased the cost of service delivery in the state.

We need stronger governance structures. Roughly 70% of public services in Sweden are delivered by semi-state agenies. The difference is they are strongly accountable to government and citizens. The innovations and efficiencies achievable through new public management can work if combined with old-fashioned democracy and acountability.

That's the real issue and the nettle this government must grasp.