After five years as Limerick's county manager, Mr Roibeard O Ceallaigh, retired from the job yesterday due to health problems. He has spent more than 38 years in the public service, including seven as assistant county manager in Clare.
Three years ago he was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a rare heart disorder. In conjunction with the Irish Heart Foundation, he has helped to establish a support group for people with the condition and the other three main forms of cardiomyopathy.
When he was diagnosed with the heart muscle disease, the statistical prognosis was that he had five years to live if he failed to have a heart transplant. "The medical advice of my consultant was that I should have retired three years ago. I take the decision that now is the time for lots of reasons - the fact that I am in good health and look forward to enjoying a good quality of life. It is all about the quality, not the quantity."
He is philosophical about the years remaining to him, asking how long any of us has to live. "I had 2-1/2 years to go on the seven-year contract. I value that 21/2 years for myself and for doing things I am interested in rather than to be committed to the coalface of local government."
He helped establish the support group due to lack of awareness of the condition, even among the medical profession. About 1,500 people in the State of all ages could suffer from its variations.
"I had never heard of cardiomyopathy and I was waiting to expire at any moment. I had to learn of the implications of this heart disease which could be hereditary but could be the result of viruses. One has it and there is no treating it like you would a bypass. The muscle is damaged, the heart gets enlarged and flabby and does not pump as well."
Offering support to sufferers, the group also encourages a greater awareness "with a view to ensuring that when people have problems in their chests that doctors might consider this a possibility earlier rather than later in the examination".
From Kilkenny, he is the son of a coach-builder and was educated in the local CBS before taking exams and beginning work as a clerical officer in Waterford. "It was the first expansion of the public service after the Whitaker development plan."
He spent 14 years in Kilkenny and three years with Wicklow County Council. In 1979, he became county secretary in Clare and, in 1985, was promoted assistant county manager. In 1992, he became county manager in Meath and moved to that position in Limerick in 1996. One of his sons, also named Roibeard, has followed him into public service and is town clerk of Longford.
Although the exposure of planning irregularities has tarnished the reputation of local authorities in recent months, he says there is no endemic problem.
"I have not seen or heard among staff or councillors, in the rural Ireland I have worked in, evidence of corruption in relation to the planning process."
Professional staff had carried out design work outside office hours, he said, but it was not unknown for them to be encouraged to help individuals or community groups with technical advice because of the lack of consultants.
"The question has to be raised - are teachers not in conflict when they do nixers at night-time? I think a more rational media examination of the issues might be a more useful contribution to the debate."
He believes the multiplicity of agencies "in a relatively small community" is now being addressed by local government reform, giving the role of community and enterprise development to the local government system.
"It is not arrogance when I suggest that the local authority should be the primary one. It is the only elected, democratically accountable system other than central parliament."
A believer in the Berlin model of economic expansion rather than the Boston one, he is bemused by people taking pride in the tax take having fallen to around 30 per cent of Gross National Product.
"The connection is being missed between having good services and paying for them. As you get older and you depend on other people, whether for social or medical purposes, it becomes necessary to rethink one's priorities, and good services become more important."