Squandering credibility - Another green elephant

TWO reports in recent days suggest that the popular view that the botched establishment of Irish Water was the high-water mark of buffoonery in Irish public and political administration may have to be reviewed.

European Commission and the Oireachtas reports pointed to failures in regulation, and to the utter incompetence of those entrusted with the critical task of monitoring EU national economies. The reports also pointed to greed so out of control in the private sector that most banks operated in a moral vacuum.

Those implosions — and emergency ward logjams — are the premiership failures of recent years, but the growing fiasco around Eircode, the postal codes introduced last July, suggests it is a strong contender for the First Division title.