Ridiculous sense of entitlement must end

Like everything else in this country the people controlling the CRC were allowed free rein, their salaries tied to the runaway public service pay, without any monitoring or accountability by successive administrations.

Added into this toxic mix, the relationship many charities have with politicians and/or political parties, what can we expect? After all these people, with their sense of entitlement, probably think what’s good enough for their political masters is good enough for them, all feeding at the trough of public funds. No wonder the country is in a shambles.

There is a lot more of the same to come — and I think it will take the PAC some time to uncover some of the other unsavoury aspects of many organisations, well hidden over the years. Vulnerable people have been exploited — remember what Kieran Mulvey said last year about sheltered workshops, where people were on endless training receiving a minimum allowance and the money going who knows where — again no accountability, a word these people do not apparently understand.

One would think that after the Fás fiasco and the HSE, still top heavy with management — but so short on clinical staff that services to people with disabilities have been to all intents practically eroded, lessons would have been learned. Why is it more important to have layers of management than physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, etc who deliver actual services to people with disabilities?

Power without responsibility and accountability to anyone in any organisation is totally unacceptable, but particularly so when public monies are involved.

How did we get to the point in this country where salaries and pensions of CEOs and managers, paid out of public funds, are deemed to be more important than the needs of those that they purport to represent or provide services for?

These people are merely exploiting vulnerable people to feed their egos and bank balances — for shame. How low can one go?

Mary Farrell

Enfield

Co Meath