Irish Examiner view: The perma-crisis
Delegates at a conference in UCC heard that the challenges facing the HSE, the prison service, the Probation Service, and the Justice Department are so consistent that any reforms had to fight for space.
It is standard operating procedure for any organisation, enterprise or service facing problems to commission a report and produce proposals for a better future.
How worrying, therefore, to hear at a conference on mental health, addiction, and the criminal justice system, at University College Cork, that society and its key players face so many daily and weekly crises that implementing change is inevitably handicapped.
Delegates heard that the challenges facing the HSE, the prison service, the Probation Service, and the Justice Department are so consistent that any reforms had to fight for space.
In many circumstances this would sound like a counsel of despair. But in a world where there are often demands for rapid change and solutions, it is well to realise that scope for action is increasingly constrained by other challenges.
