Government Reform

Bizarre as it may seem, and whether or not we like it, this election is about #RHI…

Mick Fealty on February 3, 2017, 10:23 am

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I notice this morning that Alex Kane is suggesting that the election campaign so far is full of humbug. That’s partly (as I suggested in yesterday’s #SluggerReport) because most folk have been concentrating on getting some basic administration done just so they can stand. This election has nothing to do with RHI. It has nothing to do with producing an alternative that will be demonstrably better than the one elected last May. And nothing to do with any guarantee, let alone …

If Medics Treated Patients As Governments Treat the NHS, We’d All Be Dead

Ed Straw on November 15, 2016, 11:42 am

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Another Secretary of State pushes determinedly, blindly on with NHS reforms, with the notion they alone can solve the great mystery of health. No matter how well intentioned, policy making is doomed to fail as before. I humbly suggest another way. The NHS is now into its 30th year of perpetual reform (perhaps we should hold an anniversary party?). Yet it is still in need of reform. At what point do the politicians wake up and conclude that, in the way …

Fennelly reports a comedy of errors at the Department of Justice…

Mick Fealty on September 3, 2015, 4:13 pm

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For those of you watching/caring, here’s the nub of the Fennelly report, published late on Tuesday (most of it after the Taoiseach went onto the Six One News), Vicky Conway: Despite it being such a serious matter and even though he was statutorily accountable to the minister and the Government, Callinan first discussed this matter with the Attorney General. While unable to be precise about dates, Fennelly confirms the commissioner waited at least a month to inform the secretary general of …

As Secretary General for Justice goes in Dublin, IRG’s recommendations are unsuitably vague

Mick Fealty on July 29, 2014, 9:52 am

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I won’t dwell on this in detail except to say that it is unusual to see a department head in either the British or Irish civil service step aside (or pushed) on foot of a report (PDF) published into their department by the Minister. The report’s summary bullets are worth ripping, since I suspect they apply right across struggling organisations across the public and private sectors… A closed, secretive and silo driven culture. Significant leadership and management problems. Ineffective management processes and …

British Labour contemplating a radical change agenda?

Mick Fealty on May 13, 2013, 11:35 am

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Of Irish Labour can offer a cautionary tale to its British cousins it is, that whatever you do do not land yourself in government without a credible plan of action in a time of internationally imposed austerity. Perhaps looking for strategic gains in tackling some of the long term damage of the Thatcher era might be start. Though as John Harris note, it won’t be pretty. He charts a new tough line of thinking emerging from within Labour is well …