Public sector enterprises are a waste of time and money, says professor

PUBLIC sector businesses were dismissed as a waste of time and money that could be better deployed in this age of free markets, the ISME annual conference was told.

An unprecedented assault on the sector was delivered by Professor Edward Walsh to the conference.

Prof Walsh is President Emeritus of the University of Limerick and he said businesses should to be run under the free enterprise umbrella.

The only time that the state ought to get involved was when the security of the state could be put at risk.

Otherwise let the state get on with doing what it does best and allow business to operate in an environment that has the full imaginative support of what the state has to offer, he said.

Professor Walsh made the following demands of the state:

The public sector should withdraw in an orderly way from operating enterprise and providing services, except where state security or well being is at stake or there is market failure.

The public sector should reorient resources towards providing optimal frameworks, legislation, regulations and infrastructure designed to make Ireland an unbeatable place in which to live and work.

The public sector should reorient resources towards generating and building consensus around long-term visionary projects that catch the national imagination (similar to Malaysia’s Multi Media Super Corridor, the North Carolina Triangle Park or the UK Northern Way).

The electoral system should be reformed by first introducing the PR List system for national Seanad elections (as recommended by the Seanad Reform Report) and subsequently for Dáil elections.

Boards of public bodies should be strengthened by establishing an independent commission to identify and provide lists to Ministers of the most competent people available for service.

The costs of implementing the Official Languages Act 2003 should be minimised by providing automatic on-line electronic translation into the other language.

The local-tax base of local government should be restored.

Clusters of local authorities should be amalgamated to provide stronger, more effective units of local government.

For historic and other reasons the state has stayed too involved in running businesses when it would be much better deployed creating the circumstances that encourage and inspire enterprise, he said.

Ireland’s performance during the past decade has been spectacular by any measure. We are the envy of Europe, and many of the new member states see Ireland as their vision of success.