Room for greater competence in quangos

THE reporting by your investigative correspondent Conor Ryan on the number of state agencies or quangos in Ireland and the composition of their boards is a welcome contribution to a complex (and hence often misunderstood) sector of Irish public administration.

There are indeed considerable difficulties in determining the number of agencies in Ireland given the variety of organisations in our public sector, but this is also true of other developed states. Research undertaken by the Institute of Public Administration and others in recent years have identified that the most significant feature of the Irish state agency population is the rapid increase in their number since the early 1990s, in response to varying international and domestic pressures.

This is the case not just at the national level, but at local level also. And as a result of the contraction in our public finances, the state agency sector is now subject to radical and arguably unparalleled transformation.