John FitzGerald: The shift from specialist to generalist skills in public service is a mistake

When the secretary of the Department of Finance TK Whitaker sought to change the direction of the Irish economy in the late 1950s, he faced many challenges – in particular convincing an elderly political elite of the urgency of the need for new thinking. However, he was also conscious of the fact that the Irish economics profession was ill-equipped to provide appropriate guidance.

The few Irish economists able to give useful advice on policy reform included Roy Geary, the then director of the Central Statistics Office, and the young Louden Ryan in TCD who, at Whitaker's instigation, worked in the department on the Second Programme for Economic Development. Paddy Lynch of UCD and Martin O'Donoghue of TCD were among the authors in 1965 of the very important report Investment in Education.

However, up to the end of the 1960s the department continued to rely on a panel of UK economists to provide advice on macroeconomic policy.

Understanding how the economy works is essential if the economic advice provided is to be relevant and useful. A world run by economists alone could be a dreary place, but a world run without them is headed for economic failure.

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ESRI

One of the solutions to the dearth of domestic economic expertise was the establishment of the Economic and Social Research Institute. At its formal opening in June 1961, then taoiseach Seán Lemass said: “The institute has been founded to meet the growing need for more advanced economic research on Ireland; to enlarge our knowledge of the social and economic conditions of our society; and, by that means, to increase our capacity to improve them.”

Over the subsequent 60 years, the ESRI has played a vital role in developing high-quality policy-relevant research on the Irish economy.

To ensure the ESRI’s independence from the department, Whitaker sought Ford Foundation funding. Whitaker had heard that the decision-maker on grants from the foundation served Mass in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral each morning. Whitaker duly attended Mass and cornered the official over coffee afterwards. The funding was secured.

To further build economic capacity, a number of officials in the department were funded in the 1960s to study economics abroad. When they returned, they helped build up a cadre of economic expertise in the department. This did not provide any guarantee that economic policy over the 1970s and 1980s would be wise, as a civil servant’s job is to advise ministers on the best course of action and, when that is not acceptable politically, to advise on second-best and even third-best solutions.

Despite the lessons of the financial crash, senior-level recruitment continues to favour generalist competences

At least as important as these initiatives was the return to Irish universities in the late 1960s and early 1970s of Irish economists who had studied abroad. Among the leaders of this group were Brendan Walsh, Dermot McAleese, Paddy Geary, Colm McCarthy and Cormac Ó Gráda, who went on to transform the teaching of economics in Ireland.

The Whitaker reforms made a significant difference from the late 1960s to the quality of economic advice in the public sector. But, by the mid-1990s, the civil service no longer put the same emphasis on specialist economic expertise. Instead, the prevailing view became that all civil servants should be generalists. In this world a good civil servant should be able to move from being a good economic adviser to being a good diplomat and then move on to managing agricultural policy.

Downgrading

The result was that good economists, if they were to progress in their civil service careers, had to move away from economics and turn to new pastures. While there were many civil servants who already had qualifications in economics, they were discouraged from making their career in economics. This downgrading of specialist expertise contributed to the policy failures of the 2000s.

Following the crash, lessons were learned. One outcome was the establishment of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) to redevelop a staff of economic advisers across the public service. While the greater number are based in the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, IGEES staff are also deployed across the range of Government departments. A positive development is the publication of their reports online as a contribution to public understanding and debate.

The public sector’s need for specialist expertise is not confined to economics. Specialist knowledge is essential for good policymaking whether in relation to climate change, housing or health.

However, despite the lessons of the financial crash, senior-level recruitment and promotion continues to favour generalist competences over specialist knowledge and skills, to the detriment of truly valuing and harnessing expertise to enhance policymaking.