Serious charge that didn’t raise an eyebrow

ON last Friday’s Late Late Show, Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness endorsed the following statement which he first made in September 2008:

“The public service destroys ambition, resists change and is so insulated from reality that information can be withheld from a minister, unfavourable reports are doctored and answers to parliamentary questions are master classes in dissemination and obfuscation.”

If a serving minister in an accountable democracy accused civil servants of doctoring unfavourable reports, it would be a cause of great scandal and would spark an immediate investigation by state authorities.

In Ireland, nobody batted an eyelid.

Anthony Sheridan

1 Carraig Eoin

Cobh

Co Cork