Taxpayers are forced to pay for the failures of others

As citizens of this State, we should not accept the current status quo, writes Paul Mills

If there is anything that the current issues surrounding An Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive tell us is that organisations focused on their own pre-eminence, even survival, are of no value to the people they serve.

Speaking at the opening session of the Disclosures Tribunal, its chairman Justice Peter Charleton noted that the investigation is a drain on the resources of the Irish people, saying the public wants his work to be completed efficiently. He also said that any lie told to the inquiry will be a “waste of what ordinary men and women have paid for”.

Those are very true words, a sentiment and a testimony as to how we would all like to see this particular tribunal proceed.

However, how many of us really believe that this will happen? How many of us believe, even now, before anything has really been done, that there are those who are already lawyering up in an effort to ensure that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, never sees the light of day.

Indeed, how many of us believe that ultimately we will end up paying for those lawyers who will deny us our democratic right to know what is being done or has been hidden?

We live in an increasingly violent society where the mores that existed for generations are no longer valid, where family bonds are not as strong as they used be, where entitlement trumps effort and achievement for many, where the mighty dollar or the euro reign supreme and where often times, our so-called moral compasses are fatally compromised. In such circumstances, we look for anchors that we can and should be able to depend on.

Maurice McCabe did what he thought was right and brought to light activities within An Garda Síochána which he thought were inappropriate and wrong. For his efforts, and others like him, his life and that of his family was severely affected. The allegations are that there was a scurrilous campaign waged to undermine him.

If these allegations are proven, and many of us are in no doubt there is a considerable ring of truth in them given prior issues in Donegal and elsewhere, then the gardaí which should have been focused on looking after the security of the State were in fact, more interested in securing their own pre-eminence. If it is true, a lot of money will have been spent. A tribunal is but one aspect of these considerable costs.

It is clear from the reports on the “Grace” scandal that the HSE, and possibly others, put their own interests for 20 years or more before those of a young defenceless child. She was put through a nightmare again and again. Even after the release of these reports, it would appear that the HSE may still refuse to accept full responsibility.

Over the last two decades, we have seen scandal after scandal and tribunal after tribunal focus on the grave failings in the workings of the State and the church. The output was almost always the same: No accountability, no responsibility and no justice. Mealy words were voiced that such scandals would never happen again.

The one thing they had in common was the tens of millions they cost the taxpayer and an increase in the wealth of our legal friends. Amazingly, we discover that those we employ to do a job for which they are allegedly qualified are not held to account. There appears to be nothing we can do about it. It’s Kafkaesque.

We cannot and should not all resign ourselves and accept this is the way of the world. After all, we work hard to look after our families and through our taxes oil the machinery of the State.

Last year, we allegedly entered an era of “new politics”. As citizens of this State, we should not accept the current status quo.