Howlin must stand firm to deliver real public sector reform

FOR Ireland to escape the drop zone and avoid relegation from the euro currency league, we must win our home fixtures. Away games are subject to vagaries of fortune.

Whether Merkel, Sarkozy or Barroso, stop “torturing” Ireland is beyond our control. Global economic waves of higher oil prices and interest rates may batter our ship of state. The ECB and IMF will operate in their own best interests of avoiding contagion within the eurozone and limit the damage of default. Meanwhile, the government has within its grasp power to effect critical public service reform, more efficient services, elimination of waste and delivery of value for taxpayers.

The Department of Finance faces its own Operation Transformation. New legislation is being drafted to bisect its ministry into two separate parts. This represents either potential for disastrous paralysis or most innovative dynamic of modern governance. A positive generous relationship between Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin is fundamental to a successful outcome. The political culture of the civil service is to provide exclusive loyalty to their own minister. The last attempt to divide finance functions was short lived. Jack Lynch appointed Dr Martin O’Donoghue as Minister for Economic Planning in 1977. Two years later this was aborted, when Haughey abandoned the new office.