The following letter by Mr John A Kehoe, published in The Irish Times, January 5th, most definitely provided insights to clear weaknesses in the Public Service. Having worked most of my career in the private sector, over twenty years and the last eight years in the public sector I can fully agree with and support Mr Kehoe's commentary. I have previously tweeted in a similar vein... In a previous life, it was not uncommon for individuals to be promoted 'out of harms way', unfortunately this strategy doesn't work in the public service, if anything, management incompetence is magnified with an arrogance that beggars belief....
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,
JOHN A KEHOE
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