Sir, – When I began working in local government in 1972, an elderly public servant stopped me in the street one day and said: “It is an honour to work in the public service.” I never forgot those words.
Through the early decades of this State, and certainly into the 1970s, there remained a distinct ethic of public service: the idea that working for the State involved obligations which could not be measured simply in terms of efficiency, productivity or financial return.
That began to change in the 1980s with the increasing adoption of “business-like” methods in public administration. We were told that the public service needed to become more like a business. The language of corporate management swept in. Seminars on public administration became awash with the vocabulary of customer care, best practice, strategies, performance indicators, outputs and targets.
Something important was lost in the process.
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The idea of public service, and the related concept of the common good, has a long intellectual history, from Plato and Aristotle through Aquinas and Rousseau to TH Green. At its heart was the belief that public institutions exist to pursue purposes which transcend those of the marketplace.
Yet, with the growing preoccupation with managerial efficiency, measurement and accountability, the older ideal of public service gradually ceased to occupy the place it once held in our public life.
The frequent contributions to your newspaper from Eddie Molloy and other management consultants are, to my mind, part of this continuing tendency to view public administration through the prism of business management (“Encouraging public servants to take more risks is a terrible idea,” Opinion, August 11th).
There is another way of looking at the matter.
Ludwig von Mises, one of the most influential thinkers of the Austrian School of Economics and hardly an opponent of private enterprise, insisted that public administration and private business have fundamentally different purposes.
In Bureaucracy (1944), he wrote: “It is a mistake to judge the efficiency of a government department by comparing it with the working of an enterprise subject to the interplay of market factors.”
Perhaps, after several decades of attempting to make government more “business-like”, it is time to look again at what von Mises had to say – and to recover something of that older idea that it is, indeed, an honour to work in the public service. – Yours etc,
PAT McMAHON,
Lower Salthill,
Galway.
Multiple births and leave
Sir, – I welcome Deputy John Paul O’Shea’s call for the “need to examine enhanced leave” for parents of twins, triplets and other multiple births, as well as families adopting multiple children together (“Calls to examine additional parent’s leave for births of twins and triplets,” August 8th). I have previously contacted Minster for Children, Norma Foley, and her predecessor, multiple TDs and this publication (Letters, August 15th, 2024), calling for the examination of leave entitlements, having experienced first hand the challenges that are faced when parenting twins within the current leave entitlements. Currently, maternity, paternity and parent’s leave are per pregnancy, and do not account for multiple births. To treat the pregnancy and birth of multiples as a single event is dismissive of the fact that more than one child has been born and are requiring care and attention by their parent(s).
Having given birth to twins, I can assure the Minister that their births were very much two separate events, albeit happening within a very short space of time. – Yours, etc,
NAOISE WALDRON,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16
Disabilities and schools
Sir, – Here we go again. Another year, another scramble for “special” schools and classes, and another public conversation framed around finding the “appropriate setting” for disabled children.
Somewhere within that language sits an assumption we rarely interrogate – that an “ordinary” local school can be an inappropriate place for a child simply because that child has an intellectual disability.
A few years ago a primary school principal told me that a child with an intellectual disability in his school “shouldn’t be there”. He did not know that the woman he was speaking to had a preschool-aged son with an intellectual disability.
I can still remember the sinking feeling in my stomach. And I can see now what that conversation did to me. It planted fear. It helped convince me, when my son reached school age, that perhaps a special school was the safer option.
Today, that little boy is seven and attends a mainstream Gaelscoil. He was the first child with an intellectual disability, and the first non-speaking child to attend his school.
What has happened since has fundamentally changed how I think about inclusion. An entire school community is learning that a child with an intellectual disability is not someone who exists somewhere else but a friend and classmate.
Teachers, SNAs, the principal and, crucially, other children are learning about difference, about non-speaking as a language, about how to adapt games and learning and the environment. Much of the expertise is developing in the school because they know my son.
That experience has made me wonder whether we have the question backwards. Because in a genuinely inclusive education system, we would not debate which children are capable of attending mainstream schools.
We would ask what needs to change so that every one of Ireland’s approximately 4,000 schools is capable of educating the children in its community.
Perhaps children like my son are not the problem our education system has to solve. Perhaps they are among the people who can teach us how to solve it. – Yours, etc,
LUCINDA MURRIHY,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.
Wasting and saving water
Sir, – I had the pleasure of visiting a big, modern sporting club yesterday and while there had reason to avail of their toilets.
There were five wall-mounted urinals and each flushed in harmony – and apparently do so every 10 minutes or so, 24 hours a day, seven days a week whether the premises is open or not. I checked and there is no protocol in place for turning the system off.
I estimated that 10 litres spread across five urinals is released six times an hour; that translates into more than half a million litres annually from one toilet.
The toilet works on a drip and float system into a cistern that self empties when full. How many clubs, pubs, offices, public buildings etc have similar mechanical systems?
We are crying out for people to restrain their use of water, perhaps a national initiative to address the above might be a good way to start.
If any of your readers are familiar with the above in their place of work, school or recreation perhaps they might take action? – Yours, etc,
BRIAN MURPHY,
Templeogue,
Dublin.
Simple solution?
Sir, – I may have the solution to the drought conditions being experienced by our farmers.
Clearly it will take a good quantity of rain to alleviate the situation so why not use the same tactics as they do with wildfires?
Just get helicopters to scoop up water from the many lakes in the countryside and deposit the water on the land. Simple? – Yours, etc,
DES BOYLE,
Dublin 5.
Conversations about neutrality
Sir, – Nato chief and US air force general Alexus Grynkewich believes that Ireland needs to have a conversation about neutrality (“Nato chief calls for neutrality discussion on visit to Dublin”, August 13th).
In reality – as Grynkewich undoubtedly knows – such a discussion has been under way here for some time and it is patently obvious that the general simply wishes to add his weight to the arguments against Irish military neutrality.
That said, there is certainly a need to discuss military neutrality in the context of an ever-changing world, especially with militarism on the rise. My own position is that this State’s anti-war foreign policy posture should be maintained.
Some definition, however, would be useful because how military neutrality is interpreted in practice is currently decided by the political parties in power and this is not without its problems.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, for example, see no contradiction in allowing the US to trundle through Shannon Airport, or in directly supplying military equipment (labelled as “non-lethal”) to a country at war.
Of course, there is another conversation that also needs to take place that is not mentioned by the general. We need to discuss militarism, imperialism and war.
The US itself would particularly benefit from such a discussion. Interestingly, it is reported that Grynkewich made his remarks at the US embassy while a pro-Palestinian protest occurred outside.
Perhaps the US could use its military interventions over the decades in the Middle East as a starting point for its national conversation on the morality and usefulness, or otherwise, of war as a foreign policy measure.
A common refrain from some of those who oppose Irish military neutrality is that we must “grow up”, as if militarisation is inherently the responsible course of action.
It is a peculiar view of the world. Should we not be putting more effort into preventing war? Is this not the primary conversation we should be having? – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Night flights: are they necessary?
Sir, – Does Dublin Airport really need aircraft movements while we are trying to sleep?
Many other European airports restrict or ban take-offs or landings during night time hours to limit noise pollution for nearby residents.
Last night I was awoken at 02:36 by a jet from Barcelona to Dublin flying at 6,956ft at a speed of 363 kts (Ref Flightradar 24).
Is this really necessary at this time of the morning? – Yours etc,
JOHN GERAGHTY,
Newcastle,
Co Wicklow.
Eamonn Ceannt
Sir, – I wonder what Eamonn Ceannt – a passionate Gaeilgeoir – would have made of the railway station named after him not being able to spell “ceannaigh” correctly (August 13th). – Yours, etc,
LIAM DUNNE,
Blackrock Road,
Cork.
Hitchhiking tactics of old
Sir, – Memories come flooding back of getting a real early bus out to Newlands Cross on a Friday and hoping I’d get a lift before the first bus laden with woman civil servants would arrive. Once they arrived they paced them selves out 30 feet apart, behind me in an orderly fashion, I kept thumbing and after about 15 minutes, I’d glance around and all the young ladies were gone. I always said a silent prayer that I’d get away before the next bus arriving from Aston Quay.
At Newlands Cross you now pass over on a big flyover and if you look carefully to your left you can still see the old footpath where we hitched, now abandoned and disused.
Maybe those in authority might consider erecting a statute to the unknown hitchhiker complete with sleeping bag rolled up tight, cardboard sign, combat jacket, flares and cowboy boots. – Yours, etc,
HUGH SHERIDAN,
Strandhill Road,
Sligo.
Sir, – Frank Kilfeather’s letter (August 14th), about the hitchhiker who used crutches as a “prop” to obtain a lift with him, reminds me of a student friend who regularly hitchhiked between Wexford and Waterford and proudly boasted that he never once failed in getting a lift promptly.
His hitchhiking routine consisted of a hurley prominently displayed in right hand, a raised thumb on his extended left hand and a duffel bag over his shoulder.
Large luggage items were a definite no no as it meant the driver would have to get out to open the boot.
Needless to say the conversation in the car always began with “what club do you play for” followed then by “who do you think will win the next All-Ireland?” A friendly chat to shorten his journey was the only reward ever expected by an obliging driver.
Those were the days when free travel was available to all ages provided you had the correct profile as you stood there on the side of the road with your thumb pointing upwards and a smile on your face. – Yours, etc,
NOEL SHANAGHY,
Co Waterford.
Sir– Frank Kilfeather’s letter recounting the man he stopped for who was using crutches as a ruse reminded me of an incident many years ago.
I was accompanying my Mum on a Dublin pilgrimage to Lourdes At the baths a gentleman approached in a wheelchair and was brought to the top of the rather long queue. A miracle must have happened inside because he jogged out the exit minus the wheelchair minutes later. – Yours, etc.
LAURA O’MARA,
Co Dublin.
Bells and bicycles
Sir, – Ben Ryan (Letters, August 14th), makes the sensible suggestion that cyclists use their bicycle bell to alert pedestrians of their approach. There is nothing new about this idea of course. Bicycle bells have been used for this function for the best part of a century. There was a time when it was a regular occurrence for a garda to stop a cyclist and caution them if they had no bell on their bicycle.
However, the practice has fallen out of use in recent times.
But the law has not changed. The Road Safety Authority on its website has Cycle Safety – some tips on safer cycling. It includes the advice, “Be sure your bell works. Your hands should be able to easily reach it.” And the admonition, “” It’s the law to have a bell on your bike at all times and to have working lights.” – Yours, etc.
JACK MORRISSEY,
Dublin 16.
Value for money drugs
Sir, – Approximately 200 patients have been devastated by the HSE Drugs Group decision not to fund the supply of the drug Skyclarys. This follows a recommendation by the National Centre for Pharmaeconomics against public health provision of the medication on the grounds that it would not be value for money.
The five-year budget impact is estimated to be about €130 million. Yet, multiples of that amount have been written down, having been wasted on numerous public service projects.
As a taxpayer, I would prefer my money to fund an improved outcome for Friedreich’s Ataxia patients than to plug an administrative black hole created by incompetence and inefficiency. – Yours, etc,
RITA O’BRIEN,
Co Dublin.
