Another golden circle - This is about much more than money

Though they are disappointing, and though they renew the chastening scepticism that makes it hard to believe we will ever achieve the openness and proactive social equity that underpin the kind of society we profess to admire, ongoing revelations about top-ups, under-the-counter sweeteners, off-radar bonuses, or secret second salaries enjoyed by some health service managers are just another instalment in that ongoing Irish saga — that those who can look after themselves do so even if that puts them well beyond essential line-in-the-sand disciplines of the day.

The widely practiced principle around sauce for the gander being good enough for the goose is definitely off-menu in an Ireland where the slogan “because we deserve it” provokes indulgences that shatter any idea of social solidarity.

Today, the health managers are enjoying — though that may not be the right word — their 15 seconds of fame on this issue. But they can take comfort in the fact that so many previous efforts to counteract this sector-specific featherbedding have failed dismally. The examples are myriad and come from all points in society.

Our legal system, or more specifically our legal profession, have by and large resisted demands for the kind of reforms that would make basic legal services affordable to someone paid less than, say, a moderately successful senior counsel. It is testament to the power of this cabal that even a demand from the troika — organisations as powerful as the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Commission — for fundamental reforms have not been realised even as the troika packs its bags and ends its Irish mission. Their reasonable suggestion was brushed off like dandruff from the shoulders of a busy barrister’s gown.

Of course, the great difficulty in cracking this nut is that the Government has no credibility on the issue; on the contrary, it has form. Nearly every minister has employed programme managers or special advisers — sometimes both — whose exceptional talents could not be secured for anything as paltry, as everyday, as a figure within public sector pay limits. As long as this hypocrisy is the dazzling star atop of the national Christmas tree, then it is very difficult to see how this destructive issue can ever be resolved. Of course, the usual interests are happy to exploit this latest confirmation of the existence of a wide golden circle, some for political gain, others to try to win financial advantage.

But here’s the rub — we almost believe that this entire furore is about money or insider dealing, privilege or begrudgery. It’s not. It’s about the corrosive sense of entitlement alive at nearly every level of society. It’s about our easy slide into dishonest practice if it is to our immediate advantage. And it is our tragedy, or one of them at least, that this sense of entitlement demands a national income on a par with Norway’s rather than the one we actually have, one much closer to Spain or Italy’s. Until we accept this reality and its implications, it is certain that this Republic, even as we approach the centenary of one of its founding events, will remain too hypocritical, too unfair, and too corrupt to realise the great ambitions that once seemed so very realistic.