A culture exposed - Committees too weak to force any real change

Oireachtas committees have shown how very feeble our parliament’s powers of investigation are. They have also shown how very independent some arms of State — and some agencies at an arm’s length from direct State control — perceive themselves to be.

In some cases this idea of autonomy stretches to where executives imagine it unnecessary to answer questions from elected public representatives. The committees have shown how the culture of secrecy, an us-against-the-world omertà, or at least something approaching a disingenuous silence, eats away at this society by hiding wrongdoing or shielding less than optimal performance.

That former Central Remedial Clinic chief executive Paul Kiely did not feel obliged to give the full details of his unacceptable retirement package to the Public Accounts Committee at an initial hearing is just one example of this shabby behaviour. That Angela Kerins, the chief executive of Rehab, an organisation that gets €80m a year in State funding, felt she could be so evasive, so very coy about her salary is another.