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Improving working practices in the public sector would make staff feel more fulfilled AP/Press Association Images

Column The public sector isn’t there to provide jobs, it’s there to work for us

Truly intelligent efficiencies would deliver more fulfilled workers as well as better services, writes Aaron McKenna.

Aaron McKenna wrote for TheJournal.ie about the ‘Lost Decade’ Ireland is facing into, and why we need a new vision for the nation to bring us through it. In this sixth part of hisseries on ways forward he outlines a vision for true government reform to provide better services and lower costs.

NO MATTER WHETHER you’re for big or small government you can surely agree that efficient government is something we’re short on in Ireland. Our state spends too much money to provide what it does, and it often doesn’t provide services at all that we might expect.

From over-stuffed bureaucracies passing paperwork around without achieving much to departments that can’t count the national debt, or the number of children being taught in school prefabs, or benefits handed out to rich and poor alike; we have an inefficient and ineffective government in many regards.

Inefficiency both wastes money and provides poorer outcomes. We have scores of specific examples of program failures, everywhere from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s reports to Freedom of Information revelations and our daily dealings with the State. The multiples of spending increases provided during the boom led to some good outcomes, but in many cases we saw money frittered away.

Even before the crash we were the land of a thousand quangos with citizens dying on hospital trolleys and a quarter of our teenagers functionally illiterate.

Attempts at reforming this in recent years have mostly revealed just how easy some savings could be attained, like better procurement policies, without tackling fundamental issues. The minister in charge of reform has set some example for his charges in attempting to get the highest salary of any political adviser for his own while approving cap busting ones for the stooges of other ministers.

‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is a fundamental leadership deficiency that stymies any reform process.

Soldiers can’t go on strike

The public sector needs a root and branch reform that goes back to square one and establishes what every function of government is and what is required to fulfil that role down to every department, job description and work process. This is not unprecedented either in the private sector or in our own public sector.

The Department of Defence underwent a massive reform process in the 1990s which, while not perfect, was transformational. The mission of the Defence Forces was changing and the organisation needed to modernise to meet the challenge and to be able to participate in overseas missions.

The DoD brought in outside consultants and international expertise to the job and gave them complete access. Everything from training and equipment to facilities and civilian employees was looked at and a white paper produced that made recommendations on everything from units to uniforms. Much of it was acted on and our military reformed itself.

In the process the Permanent Defence Forces reduced in size by 37 per cent, civilian employees were reduced by 67 per cent and civil service employment by 50 per cent. Barracks were sold off and modernisation was the name of the game with old work practices thrown out wholesale.

A cynic might remark that soldiers can’t go on strike, and have a life or death vested interest in their organisation being as modern and effective as possible. But the DoD reforms show a clear path to a better government: Take an honest fundamental look at what you’re doing, reassess what your goals are and how you are working to achieve them, take recommendations and implement them with buy in from your staff.

‘Reform’ does not come simply through a recruitment embargo that sees you lose key people indiscriminately, while hanging on to other roles you no longer need.

A lab in a hospital loses three of four technicians and must close when the remaining one goes on holiday. Meanwhile some county councils maintain the same number of people in their planning departments despite the construction sector collapse. That’s not reform.

It’s not about protecting jobs

Promised bonfires of quangos do not materialise, and even if they did the new amalgamated bodies wouldn’t lose a single person – despite the fact that it takes less administrators per head to run a larger body. If we decide a body is completely extraneous you can abolish the logo but nothing else.

The individuals in these jobs are likely hard working and diligent people. But we must decide whether the public sector is there as a work program, or to provide essential services in the best manner possible, perhaps firing administrators and keeping teachers.

When discussing reform unions like to say ‘It’s about protecting jobs.’ I would beg to differ: It is about creating a public service that provides the most benefit to all of us.

Politicians, senior public servants and union bosses opposing any real transformation are the enemy of anyone who encounters an inefficient state, who is angered by wasted money or is frustrated by working in an ineffective organisation.

The money we spend propping up an inefficient bureaucracy is money we can’t spend on key services. Money that must be cut bluntly from people who need it or taken out of the economy through growth killing taxes. It is a very fair comment that the majority of workers have no part in creating this problem and are just as trapped by it as others are frustrated. But we need to shed the recruitment embargo and create a public service that is as dynamic as any successful organisation.

It is natural to focus on the negative side of dynamic – cutting jobs that are not needed because of efficiencies made – but it has a positive side too. Most public servants I meet are frustrated at working in archaic organisations that stifle any creativity or genuine effort to serve and improve.

A modern and reformed public service should strive to become a more open and fluid organisation that focuses on outcomes, not process. Why not have a beanbag culture, hot-desking offices and flat organisational hierarchies to go alongside genuine performance reviews, an up-or-out work ethic and performance driven incentives?

Invest in a public service where people want to go to work with the best, to have training and advancement opportunities and a place where people can dip in and out of roles at different levels in their careers. Make it a fun and fulfilling place to work, not a staid and conservative body as it is today. Improve the lot of the typical public servant so that they can improve the service they offer us.

Aaron McKenna is Managing Director of the e-commerce company Komplett.ie. He is also writing a book on the future of Ireland to be published later this year.

You can read his previous pieces on the way forward for Ireland on TheJournal.ie here.

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38 Comments
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    Mute TheHeathen
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:16 AM

    Fianna Gael, the neo-liberal party, are ideologically opposed to cheap housing. They cannot bring themselves to do it. And this is not ‘free houses’ for the ‘free house brigade’. Only the gullible are eating up that government propaganda. These are houses that are needed by the hard working middle and working classes. The housing protests are mainly about these people, the squeezed middle, the working classes who after working forty plus hours a week still cannot have their own home or even rent. We also saw during the week that the rich will be getting richer after the new tax regime was analysed, the middle and lower classes hit again. It’s a shameful indictment of this government and their supporters.

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    Mute John Hazelnut
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:24 AM

    @TheHeathen: Wonderfully said.

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    Mute Gulliver Foyle
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:20 AM

    @TheHeathen: obviously someone who hasn’t been too beech hill terrace… it’s like when you finally give councils a chance to build, they build grandiose council houses in the middle of centrally positioned old council estates for, apparently, middle aged taxi drivers to live. compare this to similar old council estates in dun laoghaire, where they were privately knocked and residents rehoused in medium density units, increasing the housing stock by multiples. is seems that Lacey is trying to blame a minister with national remit (albeit not delivering with the CAS) for his council not getting things done, and blaming everybody else.

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    Mute Virgil
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    Dec 12th 2018, 4:55 PM

    @TheHeathen: They’re opposed to sink estates

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    Mute Ben Dunne
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    Dec 13th 2018, 4:09 PM

    @TheHeathen: Very well put. There’s no will in this government for proper social housing,it abhors them.

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    Mute Richie Stanford
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:20 AM

    Imagine if Labour had the housing ministry how different things could be…..Oh wait!

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    Mute John Hazelnut
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:36 AM

    @Richie Stanford: Nevertheless, the article provides useful insights. I note how I have heard Eoghan Murphy blaming Councils recently, it’s helpful to know what is going wrong.

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    Mute Nuala Mc Namara
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:50 AM

    @Richie Stanford:2011-2014 when TOTAL housing stock increased by just 0.4%(8,800)& homelessness grew by 81%(CSO).In 2014 there were 700 homeless children now there are 3700 homeless children ie 428%!!.
    Ireland has National emergencies in Homelessness&Housing&needs URGENT attention!There’s 70,000 HOUSEHOLDS+ on social housing waiting lists&many other people on other housing lists/housing supports including workers.Even those on higher salaries find rents a struggle&can’t buy even though paying a mortgage would be more than €1000 less a month.
    Ireland’s population is estimated to grow by 1.75m over next 33years,&if an adequate amt of housing not built now then what hope the extra 1.75m of population will be housed or in secure tenancies particularly when the next downturn happens!

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    Mute prop joe
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    Dec 12th 2018, 9:36 AM

    @Richie Stanford: Labour’s man was there for 2 years. And as much as I loath Alan Kelly he did have a major dispute with Michael Noonan in Finance about the control of housing stock. FFG want expensive housing. It suits there major donors. FG are in complete control of housing since 2011. The department of Finance hold all the strings.

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    Mute DaisyMay
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:17 AM

    And THIS is why we having a housing crisis not because of greedy landlords or Airbnb or any other BS the government tries to sell us. Government incompetence.

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    Mute Jake
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:31 AM

    He makes some good points but labour can never be trusted again

    187
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    Mute Sean Conway
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:25 AM

    Labour backed FG in government. they had a chance to make a real change in irish politics.

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    Mute John Hazelnut
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:20 AM

    Cue the “Why should anyone get a free house when anyone on minimum wages can easilybuy one if they just work their asses off 600 hours a week like me” brigade.

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:02 AM

    @John Hazelnut: cue the “everything should be free” brigade.

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    Mute MickN
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:19 AM

    @John Hazelnut: Spot on those who choose to get up every day for little more than the spongers get the same treatment as the spongers, this is led by Leo and his posh chums , pure ignorance…

    52
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    Mute Tom's
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:34 AM

    FG and FF the same party both completely incompetent.There is no possibility they will sort out the housing crisis homeless crisis health crisis or any other crisis.Between the two of them they have managed to destroy this country over the last couple of decades.
    They are always only interested in the next election neither make decisions for the good of the people in this country.we need to get rid of both of them in the next election.They are completely toxic.

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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:39 AM

    @Tom’s: They are not incompetent at all, they are keeping the rotten system in place which is exactly what they want, nothing will ever change as long as we keep voting them in. It will be just more corruption, more ripoffs, more scandals, more jobs for the boys, more cover-ups and on and on

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    Mute Michael Nolan
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:23 AM

    They don’t want to build homes they want to build rentals for their rich friends to rent out .everything thing else is smoke and boxxox.. I will tell u 1 thing il never vote for FF or fg again

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    Mute Tom's
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    Dec 12th 2018, 4:01 PM

    @Michael Nolan: nor I

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    Mute Mick Barnier
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:30 AM

    Incompetence is the reason. But it’s very expensive for the taxpayers and devastating for those in need and there’s no desire to sort it out.

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    Mute Sean Conway
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:05 AM

    @Mick Barnier: There was a time when workers got raises in their wages. and tax was used to create council houses, water, bins, etc. FG are in too much of a hurry to sell off ireland

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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:07 AM

    @Mick Barnier: Stop with this “incompetence”. FFG are the most competent government the country has ever seen when it comes to looking their interests.
    Just look at 1.9 billion tax free for vultures and PTSB.

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:41 AM

    @Dave Doyle: “FFG are the most competent government the country has ever seen”

    Good man, Dave. Leo will be delighted with you.

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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:32 AM

    @Chin Feeyin: You left out the important bit. Typical FG spin.

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Dec 12th 2018, 11:10 AM

    @Chin Feeyin: you totally missed his point

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Dec 13th 2018, 12:43 PM

    @Chin Feeyin: read the last line — (its called sarcasm )

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    Mute Aine O Connor
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    Dec 12th 2018, 9:38 AM

    I know of a 3 bedroomed council house where the former tenants put in a new kitchen and left the house in pristine condition . 5 years later it was still vacant and when eventually they got round to it the Council ripped out the kitchen and put in another one.
    I know of another small one story semi detached bungalow type house that went on fire 2 years ago . It’s still there untouched. Both of these houses are in the middle of villages.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Dec 13th 2018, 12:48 PM

    @Aine O Connor: i know of 6 houses newly built with state of the art kitchens ,solar panels , low energy heating systems and all the latest gadgets bells and whistles — cost over 1.7 million to build them — and they are still empty !! — because the people who they were built for dont want them !!! now the problem is that because they were built as part of a program for housing ‘an ethnic minority ‘ no one else on the councils waiting list can be offered those houses – so they will remain empty !!! regulations have to be adhered too in these over bureaucratic local authorities !!

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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:49 AM

    Bureaucracy = no accountability

    82
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    Mute KerryBlueMike
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    Dec 12th 2018, 7:22 AM

    I thought it was the landlord’s fault?

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:03 AM

    @KerryBlueMike: I thought it was all AirBnB’s fault.

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    Mute Alan Lawlor
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:25 AM

    @Chin Feeyin: I thought it was the fault of those who don’t get up early in the morning

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    Mute prop joe
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    Dec 12th 2018, 9:40 AM

    @KerryBlueMike: the state are the landlords. Who owns the banks? FFG want expensive property. When the price was falling they thru 100 billion to prop up the price. Now prices are out of the average workers reach they do nothing.

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    Mute Hans Vos
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    Dec 12th 2018, 1:13 PM

    @Chin Feeyin: it,s everybody fault except the government and ministers.

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    Mute Brian Smith
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    Dec 12th 2018, 9:38 AM

    Too many govt dept’s, too many civil service staff waiting for retirement , too much bureaucracy , this is the problem.

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    Mute Marcus o Dhonnghaile
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    Dec 12th 2018, 11:03 AM

    @Brian Smith: Its really the only stable gig in town

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Dec 13th 2018, 12:50 PM

    @Marcus o Dhonnghaile: what about the nativity ? thats a stable gig !!

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    Mute Frankie Mangan
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:25 AM

    Lacey is another one with his nose constantly in the trough. He had nothing to say when his hero Alan Kelly did nothing to prevent this crisis. Lacey voted against his party and voted in favour of the privatisation of our waste services. He got made mayor after that. Lacey is not to be taken seriously.

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    Mute Dermot Lacey
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    Dec 12th 2018, 3:59 PM

    @Frankie Mangan:

    There are several falsehooods there.

    1) I did raise many issues with Alan Kelly and am delighted that it was he who pushed the Charlemont Development through and indeed his support for the Beech Hill project was crucial.

    2) If you look at my published income from DCC during this term I did not seek any of what might be called the “lucrative” roles – despite the fact that I am Group Leader.

    3)I did NOT vote for waste services privatization and indeed had my advice been followed it would not have been privatized.

    4) I was Mayor before I cast my vote in favour of Waste Charges.

    5) Ill leave the decision on whether to take me seriously with the electorate.

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    Mute Dermot Lacey
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    Dec 12th 2018, 4:00 PM

    @Frankie Mangan:

    There are several falsehoods there.

    1) I did raise many issues with Alan Kelly and am delighted that it was he who pushed the Charlemont Development through and indeed his support for the Beech Hill project was crucial.

    2) If you look at my published income from DCC during this term I did not seek any of what might be called the “lucrative” roles – despite the fact that I am Group Leader.

    3)I did NOT vote for waste services privatization and indeed had my advice been followed it would not have been privatized.

    4) I was Mayor before I cast my vote in favour of Waste Charges.

    5) I’ll leave the decision on whether to take me seriously with the electorate.

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    Mute Tom O Brien
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:01 AM

    Simple solition. Everyones only allowed to own one house at a time.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Dec 12th 2018, 12:40 PM

    That used to be the case. Back in the 80s when times were tough and interest rates sky high, local county councils were able to build social housing.
    That Phil Hogan has a lot to answer for!

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    Mute Marcus o Dhonnghaile
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    Dec 12th 2018, 11:02 AM

    Well after 2008 all the tradesmen left as they couldnt sign on. You were told to F66k Off as you were self employed even though you paid thousands in tax. We didnt have a construction industry. What would you expect ??? Anyone abroad aint coming back in a hurry as there is another dip with Brexit

    28
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    Mute Marcus o Dhonnghaile
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    Dec 12th 2018, 11:06 AM

    Get rid of all bedsits, bring in a send tranche of building regulations and make it too expensive to build and I suppose this is what you have going forward.

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    Mute Colonel Grant
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    Dec 12th 2018, 12:06 PM

    Is it just me or is this article pursuing the same vein of what appears to be the proliferation of what I regard as. “ The Homeless Industry “ . Where are all these alleged homeless people . Not trolling by the way, a genuine question

    11
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    Mute Annmoore
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    Dec 12th 2018, 1:34 PM

    Why did it take 7 months to get planning permission for Cherrywood in shankill area – we have a homeless crisis, can they not sit around a table and do it instantly.

    11
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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Dec 13th 2018, 12:58 PM

    palms to be greased – brown envelopes to be sourced , bank notes to be ‘washed’ !!it all takes time !!

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    Mute Peter Byrne
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    Dec 12th 2018, 10:06 AM

    Should allow the City and County Councils get on with it

    9
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    Mute Virgil
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    Dec 12th 2018, 5:01 PM

    I wouldn’t rely on councils/govt departments to do anything for me. You gotta look after yourself as best as you can and if not, then rely on your family. I remember going into DL county council offices at 9.30 am to pay rates and they didn’t open till 10am! I brought in an important file to another government department in the city centre at 3.30pm on a Friday. Silly me, they were closed.

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    Mute Walt Kowalski
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    Dec 12th 2018, 8:56 PM

    @Virgil: dont forget closed for lunch between 12 and 2. Its a 4 hr working day in the civil service. Throw in the 25 days annual leave and the “self-certified” sick days and it may even be less than that.

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    Mute TimBuck2
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    Dec 12th 2018, 12:42 PM

    free

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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Jan 8th 2019, 12:31 AM

    And labour party were in government 2011-16 and did not change a thing,they spent their time forcing austerity policies and water charges down the publics throat,dermot getting worried about his future.

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    Mute Liam Mernagh
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    Dec 15th 2018, 11:14 PM

    Official Ireland is alive and well and looking after it’s own vested interest, i.e. make sure the populace & politicians don,t get above themselves and interfere with iur cosy way of life. It’s time put the PS under deep scrutinyc Come on Paul Murphy, Boyd Barrett & Solidarity PBP; where are you all & your intrepid brigade??

    1
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