Madam, – Dr Eddie Molloy’s critique of the Department of Finance (Opinion, April 8th 9th), was devastating and convincing. It demands a response. The silence of the department, and of its Minister, is deafening. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In calling for a public appraisal of civil service advice, Dr Eddie Molloy disregards the essence of minister/civil service relationships. Within departments the merits of policies are intensely debated among civil servants and between civil servants and ministers. The public debate on such issues belongs to parliament. Good policies derive from a constructive tension between ministers and officials.
Despite his perambulations through “numerous government departments”, Dr Molloy failed to recognise some key features of civil service culture: courage and independence in initiating and analysing policy proposals coupled with a scrupulous respect for the proprieties of democratic government. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In his excellent piece outlining a strategy for reform in the public service, Dr Eddie Molloy omits one key change.
Unlike in First World countries, we in Ireland do not have a public service appointments commission that operates right up to the highest levels. Alas, the appointments of secretaries general, for example, are in the gift of the relevant minister, thus rendering almost impossible the maintenance of the “distance between ministers and their officials” that Dr Molloy would wish.
Until such a commission is created that is independent of political interference at all levels, any talk of holding “secretaries general accountable for delivering (or not) on their published strategies” is futile. They will indeed remain, as Dr Molloy writes, “politicised”. – Yours, etc,