Law and disorder: Public service chaos is managerial and political

BRIAN Purcell has taken a bullet for the State twice in his career. Once, when he was near the bottom of the pile, as a young official in the Department of Social Welfare, he refused payment to an applicant for the dole. That claimant was the notorious Dublin gangster, The General. Purcell was kneecapped for his troubles.

On Monday evening, he took another hit, when he agreed to be reassigned from his post, as secretary general at the Department of Justice, on foot of a highly critical report of its workings.