Sir – Why does Eddie Molloy (“Croke Park accord needs more than recalibration”, Opinion Analysis, January 2nd) find it necessary to adopt such a hostile and rancorous tone when he talks about the public sector? Public-sector bodies have the characteristics which are typical of large, complex and long-established organisations, whether in the public or private sectors. Undoubtedly, the pace of change in these organisations can be frustratingly slow.
Mr Molloy’s piece fails to acknowledge the work of many thousands of public servants, who are also frustrated by structural and systemic organisational shortcomings, and yet perform to a high standard to promote the public good in a highly complex and challenging environment. These public servants do not “trumpet” their achievements, but work behind the scenes to deliver efficient, value-for-money services, while also striving to uphold public service values, such as equality of treatment for all, and to protect and promote Ireland’s interests internationally in the EU and beyond.
The public service seems to have become the whipping boy for all our current ills, when it is quite clear that the private sector has a substantial share of the blame. It would be refreshing to read a more balanced analysis, which took into account the enormous contribution the public sector makes to society.
I would also like to challenge Mr Molloy’s attack on flexitime. Flexitime is a cost-neutral way of facilitating employees to work the same number of hours but with a more flexible pattern of attendance. It has been shown to have a positive rather than a negative effect on productivity and morale. Women, who traditionally have shouldered more of the burden of child-rearing and family care, have found flexitime an invaluable support in their efforts to combine a worthwhile career with family responsibilities. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The assertion by Dr Eddie Molloy that “few public service managers have the training, tools or delegated authority to implement human resource policies for grown-ups” raises also the important general issue as to how many senior public managers at, say, principal officer level or above, have bothered to upskill themselves beyond the Leaving Certificate with which alone many of them first entered the public service.
Of even greater public interest is the question as to what extent, if at all, are official promotion policies weighted in favour of those officials who possess or who have formally acquired appropriate qualifications, while serving as public servants, in contrast to some officials who have held key positions, well beyond their capacity or qualifications, during the so-called Celtic Tiger years. The quite calamitous results which followed in such cases should have buried forever the quaint notion, which we imported from the British civil service, of the “gifted amateur”; a mythical person of general education who, endowed with goodwill and with little else, could successfully tackle and be confidently put in charge of complex public administration.
Official publications do not identify how well qualified or otherwise our senior public servants individually are, a matter which could be addressed by Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin. – Yours, etc,