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Friday, March 12, 2010
SUCCESSFUL organisations invariably have a culture of excellence; an instinctive code of conduct and expectation that informs and drives everything they do. Second best is never good enough, it is not an option. It is not even considered.
Almost invariably they have leaders who set standards and expectations. Leaders who, by force of personality or argument, act as a catalyst and bring out the best in all of those around them. Michael O’Leary does it at Ryanair, Declan Kidney does it with our rugby team, Alex Ferguson does it at Manchester United and Aidan O’Brien does it at Coolmore.
They lead to excellence through excellent leadership.
As our latest episode of shame and farce — Tallaght’s X-ray black hole — reactivates the outrage caused by the Tracey Fay scandal, the Monageer scandal, the Susie Long scandal, the Midlands cancer diagnosis scandal, the mental services scandal and as many more scandals as you could wave a first class air ticket to New Zealand at, it is not necessary to point out that the leadership shown in our health services and in Government is cut from a far less lustrous cloth.
At this sorry stage the outrage and worry generated by the X-ray scandal is almost as threadbare as Health Minister Mary Harney’s well-worn acknowledgement and defence: "It should not have happened."
But it keeps happening, time and time again. And no matter how Ms Harney might wish to convince us otherwise she is responsible for the health service. She should accept that and finish her political career with a degree of dignity and resign.
The frequency of these scandals suggests we should look beyond the immediate crisis to understand why we are dealing with so many basic failures of governance. Maybe we should look at the path that takes someone to a seat at Cabinet.
Mary Harney was made Senator by Jack Lynch in 1977 w hen she was 24. Since then she has been a full time politician. Her Cabinet colleague Mary Coughlan became a TD, after a very brief stint as a social worker, at the age of 21. She is 45 now and has been a full time politician since first elected.
This pattern is reflected right across the political system and while it might create excellent politicians it has not produced too many leaders. It means we have too many ministers with no experience outside of politics. This has not served them, or us, well. Maybe we should raise the age, to say 30, before individuals can stand for the Dáil? Maybe we should look at the list system that has served so many European countries so well.
It should be pointed out too that we would not have heard of the Tallaght scandal but for Professor Tom O’Dowd. Just like Alan Shatter, he had enough of a system that was not working. We are in their debt.
Yesterday the Dáil voted against any debate on Tallaght and adjourned until March 23. Taoiseach Brian Cowen may use some of that time to finalise his new Cabinet. This should be an occasion for optimism but unless he does something truly out of character he will appoint politicians not leaders and it will just be a matter of time before another Tracey Fay or Tallaght scandal.
We, or our political system, cannot afford that.
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