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Is Justice the only department with a "silo-driven culture"?

Despite the fact that new Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is generally regarded as performing...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.40 1 Aug 2014


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Is Justice the only department...

Is Justice the only department with a "silo-driven culture"?

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.40 1 Aug 2014


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Despite the fact that new Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is generally regarded as performing strongly – some are suggesting she might ultimately succeed Enda Kenny – the government just can’t seem to get away from a story that has dominated the headlines throughout 2014.

The past week alone saw three new stories emerging on the issue. There was Alan Shatter’s move to seek a judicial review of the Guerin Report, which effectively pits him against his old cabinet colleagues.

The government was also forced to deny reports that the Taoiseach had failed to act on warnings from one of his own TDs on the whistleblower controversy last February.

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John Deasy reportedly told Kenny that Sgt Maurice McCabe’s evidence to the Public Accounts Committee was credible. And he said that Shatter, the Department of Justice and the Government were failing to deal property with those complaints. In response, the Government pointed to the establishment of the Guerin report as evidence of Kenny’s intent. But in politics, once you’re explaining you’re losing.

And lastly, but certainly not least, we had the review of the Department of Justice - and the subsequent request from the Secretary General to be reassigned.

The report was pretty damning of the Department’s modus operandi. It found a “closed, secretive” culture, along with “significant leadership and management problems”.

It also spoke of “ineffective management processes and structures to provide strong strategic oversight” of key agencies, both to hold them accountable and ensure they were effective.

The review also identified a management advisory committee – made up of senior department officials – that was “neither sufficiently focused on key strategic priorities that impact on the Department and its key agencies, nor ensuring that emerging issues with agencies or with political consequence are identified and managed proactively”.

While it did also highlight many positives at the Department - including the expertise, professionalism, dedication and loyalty of staff – the overall verdict was pretty bad.

But are the weaknesses identified confined to just one government department?

Is Justice the only one with a leadership problem and a “silo-driven culture”? Privately, at least some ministers think not.

A decade ago, the Travers Report into the illegal charges on nursing home residents was sharply critical of the Department of Health, where it said there was a long term failure to deal with the issue. That report, incidentally, also led to the reassignment of a secretary general.

Then, there is the obvious failure of the Department of Finance to heed the warnings – both from inside and outside the Department – about the property bubble and economic downturn.

All of which begs the question: Is our civil service currently fit for purpose? It’s only fair to stress that there are many dedicated and hugely effective civil servants in this country. The vast majority work very hard and do a really good job. But are they being failed by the structures that are in place? Has the ‘permanent government’, as the civil service is sometimes referred to, adapted enough to meet the needs of a modern state in a fast-changing world?

I’ll be exploring that question in detail with former government advisor Gerry Howlin and management consultant Eddie Molloy, on the Sunday Show, this weekend at 11am.


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