EPA Radon Map Launch (Failure)

Ger Roe

So...

The EPA launched a national campaign yesterday to get people to check their home location for Radon Gas risk. The risk is very much higher than the previously existing data (20 years old) would have indicated. Householders and business owners are urged to use their new online map facility to check their areas for risk potential. Except ..... the map failed to launch yesterday (due to demand levels) and is still offline this morning (due to demand levels).

I am sick of this sort of 'make do' attitude from state authorities. If it was a commercial company promoting a product launch, you would be sure that the required infrastructure would be adequately resourced, or else someone would be fired.

Another example being reported on the radio this morning is the passport office.... who would have known that there would be pent up demand for passports this year? Answer: Everyone!!. I have been hearing about backlogs and delays at the passport office for decades.

Another example.... Secondary school places in integrated schools for Autisim students. Surely it is not beyond the skills of planners in the Dept of Ed to know how many Autism students are in primary schools and then figure out when they will need secondary places?

Again, if these people were working in the real world where results pay their salaries... they would be fired.

Explosive_Cornflake

The EPA issue seems quite solveable, just thrown a CDN in front of it.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120996#Comment_119120996

They are all quite solvable.... but someone has to have the motivation to want to do it right in the first place. The responsibility or accountability seems to be lacking in state service organisations, both at national and local level. The pressures of commercial marketplace performance requirements, don't seem to ever be a factor.

The hard pressed tax payer pays their wages and the people we elect to oversee their performance... don't do it. I am looking at you Eamon Ryan, Simon Coveney and Josepha Madigan, and also Stephen Donnelly, Leo Varadkar and Michael Martin.

I often think we elect the wrong people... we should elect civil servants so that they can be directly accountable to the people that fund them. The people we do elect are only temporary five year puppet masters, who continually fail to pull the right strings.

BrianD3

Yes, I thought that was pretty bad. They put on a launch with media invited and were then caught out by the general public trying to view the maps that they launched.

With some exceptions, there is a haphazard approach to ICT in public service bodies.

Also, how much did the hotel used for this launch cost and how much was spent on travel and subsistence for people from PS bodies to attend. The public sector conference/junket brigade love these sort of events.

It's not just ICT stuff. A kinda specific point from a conversation with someone about a month ago was how I can watch YouTubers in America in a well-finished room/studio that probably cost a few hundred quid. Look at new builds on US property sites. The snag list would be short. In Ireland meanwhile if you go into a building just after it opens chances are there'll be puddles outside on the just-laid ground, few doors won't be open yet, unused wires will be hanging around the place. Nothing is ever done properly.