Sir, – That the term “business ethics” is an oxymoron is itself a cliché.
It seems bizarre that the Taoiseach would criticise companies for the tactics they use to land contracts ("State to examine if unrealistically low bids submitted to win contracts", News, February 13th).
It sounds like a tennis player complaining that his opponent hits the ball too hard.
Rather than blaming the opposition, would we not be wiser to employ experienced competent negotiators at the start of projects, as those same companies clearly do? It would save a fortune, including that spent on consultants’ fees spent to explain the overruns that surprise only our politicians. – Yours, etc,
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BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – I suppose it’s too late to suggest that an “expert committee”, a beloved invention in Ireland, be appointed to oversee badly costed or uncosted public capital projects?
Projects such as the proposed National Children’s Hospital could probably use a few experts, and thereby avoid inevitable, unanticipated, unimagined, unthought of cost over-runs, running into hundreds of millions of euro. – Yours, etc,
ED McDONALD,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.