Ineffective bureaucracy and a failure of regulation

Citizens pay the price

Sir, – Recently I have been struck by the grave impact on our society of the failure of many of our regulators and bureaucrats to process their workload in a timely manner.

Our Garda Síochána are afraid to use force in case they are reported to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission where they will be left in excruciating limbo while waiting years for a hearing which more often than not results in their exoneration. As a consequence, we witnessed a force apparently stymied while trying to control a riot.

There are patterns of vexatious “environmental objections” to developments whose sole objective is to extort funds from developers fearful of wipeout as a result of inordinate time lapses in processing objections by An Bord Pleanála.

At a time when we need urgent action to address the housing crisis and climate change, we have a persistent brake on our ability to deliver housing and the renewable energy infrastructure to meet our climate targets.

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The length of time taken to process asylum applications leads to unacceptable delays in deporting unqualified candidates, overload of accommodation, high subsistence costs and social unrest.

Effective bureaucracy matters; many of the issues outlined above could be mitigated by a efficient processes with reliable timelines . – Yours, etc,

AILBHE MURRAY,

Dublin 18.