The Tanaiste, Mary Coughlan, has warned a number of professions that the Government will not back down in its drive to increase competition in order to help save the economy (Irish Times).
Engineers, architects, the legal profession, dentists and others are, apparently, to be targeted by the Government because they have not yet felt the chill winds of economic reality. Ms. Coughlan has accused these professions of economic conceit.
So what action is the Tanaiste going to take against those guilty of economic conceit? Well, it seems that the Competition Authority has issued a number of reports over the past few years on the said professions and Ms. Coughlan is now going to submit a report – before the end of the year no less – outlining the progress achieved on the recommendations of those reports.
Asked about the McCarthy report on public service staffing expenditure Ms. Coughlan said she had instructed her department and think-tank Forfás to carry out an evaluation across all Government departments, assessing the impact of the report on employment and on the productive sector.
So, in summary, Ms. Coughlan is going to submit a report in response to a number of other reports and carry out an evaluation across all Government departments to assess the impact of the McCarthy report.
Who said that politicians are not showing vision and courageous leadership in this time of severe crisis?
To paraphrase Woody Allen – Those who can, do. Those who can’t, write reports
As someone who has spent most of the last dew years abroad, my first question was “who is this woman”?
Wikipedia supplies the following…
Coming from a political family, Coughlan was always interested in politics, and joined a Cumann at the age of 16. Coughlan was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD in the 1987 general election for the Donegal South West constituency. At the age of 21 years and 9 months Coughlan was the youngest member of the 25th Dáil. Coughlan is not the only member of her family to become politically active. Her uncle, Clement Coughlan, was a TD from 1980 until his death in 1983, in a road traffic accident while her father, Cathal Coughlan, was a TD from 1983 to 1986 when he died after a short illness. The death of her father resulted in Coughlan being co-opted onto Donegal County Council and launching her own political career.
This “family business” approach to politics in Ireland is one of millstones round the country’s neck.
“Incompetence is the greatest form of corruption”.