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NIALL FITZGERALD, who has some searing things to say about Irish business culture in today’s Irish Times, cannot be dismissed as a maverick or a begrudger. He is one of the most successful Irish businessmen of his generation, former chairman and chief executive of the giant multinational Unilever and then chairman of the global media agency Reuters. Nor can he be seen as an outsider hostile to this country. Although he has spent most of his career outside Ireland, he is passionately Irish. If his words are harsh, they are nonetheless the words of a friend.

When such an able manager says that he believes he could not have made a business career in Ireland without compromising on his personal principles, we should take notice. And when he suggests that Ireland still has “too many people who have a vested interest in there being no accountability”, he poses a challenge to business, political and institutional leaders to prove him wrong.