Private skills for public sector

MORE men and women working in the private sector should take up roles in the public sector, bringing their entrepreneurial skill with them, a former business leader says.

Peter Malone, who now chairs the National Roads Authority, was formerly managing director of the Jury’s Doyle Hotel Group Plc. He says those working in the private sector bring a greater entrepreneurial spirit into the public sector and more people should follow in his footsteps.

“The most rewarding position is a non-executive position on a PLC — because your main focus is on giving value for money to the shareholder,” he said as he addressed Waterford Chamber of Commerce yesterday.

“Decisions made in the morning are followed through that afternoon. What can be frustrating when on a semi-state board is that a decision is made at board level and it can take months to follow through.”

“People with a strong private-sector background have a low tolerance of them for this reason.”

When Mr Malone came to the NRA board five years ago, he said it had no long-term budget and was struggling from year to year. Most of the time, the annual budget was spent just nine months into its term.

“What it really showed me was we could not plan two to three years down the road, like businesses could. I went to the Transport Minister and to the Finance Minister and made my case, stating the difficulty we were in. I outlined how impossible it was to plan.

“Shortly afterwards, the NRA got a five-year envelope of €7 billion. This is an example of what business people can bring to semi-states and how they can bring about change. It was an excellent decision by the Government and allowed us to change our way of giving contracts.”

“Maybe we should have more private sector people working in the public sector and that would bring the spirit and entrepreneurial skills that have made companies like CRH, AIB and Kerry Group such excellent, world-wide Irish companies into our public sector too.”