Sir, – Dermot McCarthy’s retirement as secretary general of the Department of An Taoiseach and cabinet secretary provides this Government with an opportunity to improve governance at the highest level within the Cabinet and the Civil Service.
During the Haughey and Ahern periods as taoisigh, the separate offices of secretary general to the Department of An Taoiseach and the cabinet secretary were combined, and this has continued up to the present day.
A new power and informal structure was created within the senior Civil Service whereby the secretaries general to the line departments reported to the secretary general to the taoiseach, and in turn to the taoiseach. This provided a means whereby the line ministers and the cabinet could be both managed, and, on occasion, bypassed. The power of the Department of Finance was much reduced, as the minister found it difficult to oppose measures which had already been “squared” with the taoiseach.
The advent of social partnership further concentrated power into the hands of the Department of An Taoiseach, thus undermining the role of the Department of Finance as the controller of the State payroll, with the consequence that the State’s payroll costs eventually became unsustainable. The one advantage of this concentration of powers was that it provided a highly effective team of senior civil servants and politicians to manage the peace process. This requirement is not such a major priority that it should provide a justification for short cuts in governance.
The informal structure of line secretaries general reporting to the secretary general to the taoiseach remains in place as a means of routing decisions to the taoiseach without the full rigours of Department of Finance review. It also undermines cabinet debate, as a proposal which has been informally cleared with the taoiseach in advance of the actual cabinet meeting is unlikely to be altered at the cabinet table.
For all these reasons, it is essential that the office of cabinet secretary is separated from the office of secretary general to the Taoiseach and that the government processes which served the State so well before the Haughey years be restored. Let us have cabinet government once again. – Yours, etc,