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Eddie Molloy Opinion Sláintecare was ready to roll, then it was denied the necessary political air cover

About 12 years ago, I had a call from the Department of Heath, inviting me to discuss how I might assist with “strategy”. I requested any relevant documents and reports so I could get the lie of the land in advance of our meeting. The following day, a van arrived at my home to deliver two large plastic crates of reports. I sent them back.

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Eddie Molloy Opinion Forget about ‘culture’. It's high time financial services sector had to face swift accountability​

If I had a euro for every time the ‘culture’ of an organisation is cited as the root cause of recurring institutional failures and scandals, I would be a rich man.

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Eddie Molloy Opinion Virus crisis has shone spotlight on pitiful standards in some of our nursing homes

As the Covid-19 crisis unfolded, we acquired a new vocabulary to explain what was going on, with terms like 'flattening the curve', 'cocooning' and 'test, self-isolate, trace'. We also learned about 'pre-existing conditions' or 'underlying conditions', like diabetes or coronary heart disease, which make people especially vulnerable to the virus.

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Eddie Molloy Opinion Only sustainability and social justice can bring us economic growth after Covid

The Irish Independent editorial on April 15 hailed the agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to enter into government as full and equal partners as "a political rubicon crossed for the nation's good".

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Eddie Molloy Opinion Eddie Molloy: 'These shallow election-time sweeteners highlight a dearth of political visionaries'

I get up early in the morning, work hard and pay a lot of tax. The first thing I do is fetch the newspapers from the hallway. So you might think I was delighted over the holidays when the headlines proclaimed that the Taoiseach intended seeking a new mandate so that he could "do a lot more" for people like me.

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Eddie Molloy: 'Politicians can't dilute medicine aimed at curing the force's ills'

The reorganisation of cancer services back in 2009, which has delivered better outcomes for patients ever since, is regularly cited as an example of "how we got it right" when it comes to a discussion about the restructuring of our health services.

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Eddie Molloy: 'Hysteria won't help our beef farmers - but planning to transform their sector will'

The reaction of farming leaders and some politicians to the announcement of the Mercosur trade deal bordered on the hysterical.

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Eddie Molloy: 'Broadband plan reeks of 'politics and party above policy' mistakes'

The letter sent by Robert Watt, secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, to his counterpart in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Mark Griffin, expressing his anxiety regarding the proposed contract for the National Broadband Plan (NBP), is remarkable for its sheer force.

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Eddie Molloy: 'High time State used all its powers to smash the callous 'omerta' shrouding mother and baby homes'

Whenever we wake up to shocking headlines like the burning of Notre-Dame Cathedral, among our first thoughts, once we have recovered from the initial impact, is to ask how could this happen, who was responsible, could it have been prevented and what must we do now to prevent it happening again?

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Eddie Molloy: 'Banks might finally accept that change is necessary - but it's been far easier to restore their financial health than transform the culture in which they operate'

The launch of the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB) is a welcome initiative by the Central Bank to address the pattern of recurring scandals that are spawned by a deeply ingrained, cynical banking culture.

Eddie Molloy: 'McCabe's ordeal will have been in vain unless the Government acts'

Glowing tributes have been paid to Maurice McCabe following his vindication by Mr Justice Peter Charleton. We've heard much praise for his courage in speaking out about Garda wrongdoing and the dignity shown by him and his wife during their 12-year ordeal, so chillingly recounted in Katie Hannon's recent documentary on RTÉ.

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Eddie Molloy: 'We must not take a backward step by stopping healthy dissent in Garda force'

All judges are concerned to establish the truth in the cases that come before them, but truth, and more so its polar opposite, lying, is so troubling to Mr Justice Peter Charleton that he felt compelled to write a scholarly book about lying and its disastrous consequences for individuals, institutions and nations.

Young need action, not words, on mental health

Fine words have been exchanged in the Dáil in recent days about the need to address deficiencies in the mental health services.

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Water fiasco is like a tracer that shines a light on all that is wrong with our political system

Last Thursday night on RTÉ's 'Prime Time' programme, Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart said that the water charges shambles in the Dáil earlier that day was "no longer about water, it is now about trust. Fianna Fáil is a party that keeps its promises and Fine Gael doesn't". In the same interview, having sought to claim the high moral ground, Mr Lahart then denied point blank that Fianna Fáil had contemplated introducing meters and hefty charges as recently as 2010.

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We must dig deep to root out the force's cultural malaise

Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan concedes that massive, country-wide inflation of drink-driving test numbers and the wrongful conviction of 14,700 people for motoring offences revealed "individual and collective ethical failure" in An Garda Siochana.

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have left us all high and dry with water charges U-turn

Fianna Fáil is at it again. It bought the election of 1977 by promising to eliminate household rates and car tax. Its infamous decentralisation programme, which involved the appropriation and vandalisation of the civil service and State agencies, ensured the party romped home in the local elections of 2003. For a decade up to the crash of 2007-8, in order to secure the votes of "breakfast roll man", Fianna Fáil recklessly spent public money like there was no tomorrow; remember Charlie McCreevy's: "While I have it I spend it"?

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Time to end kid-glove treatment for failing managers in the HSE - what we need is genuine accountability

The recent announcement of a new performance management and accountability system for HSE managers is designed to reassure the public that the HSE and Health Minister Simon Harris are determined to deal with recurring, serious failings in our hospitals and community social services.

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Eddie Molloy: Deep-rooted dark forces in Garda are intent on obstructing reform

When Maurice McCabe and John Wilson began to blow the whistle on the rampant scrubbing of penalty points and more serious failings in An Garda Síochána, a flood of people came forward with claims of misbehaviour ranging from bullying to failures to properly investigate murders. A few of these cases were aired in the media with complainants telling of their frustration in securing a fair response from the Garda.

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HSE needs cash - but that won't fix management crisis

It is widely reported that Health Minister Simon Harris and members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party have declared war on HSE managers, threatening to remove those who do not measure up. While conceding that more money is needed, they contend that the root of the problem is managerial incompetence.

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Unions holding Government to ransom - and everyone else is suffering as a result

In a book just published, entitled 'Austerity and Recovery in Ireland: Europe's Poster Child and the Great Recovery', the authors remind us that 70pc of our national debt, which we are now paying €7bn a year to service, was caused not by the demon banks but by ourselves adopting a lifestyle that was never sustainable.

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Political interests infect every move to reform health system

About 18 years ago, when I was invited to engage with the Department of Health, I requested copies of relevant documents that I should read in advance of meeting with officials. A few days later, two men in a van arrived at my door with two large plastic crates containing over a hundred reports, plans and reviews. Since then, successive health ministers have added a few hundred more to the pile and this week yet another review of A&E overcrowding is promised.

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We're all paying the price for grotesque influence of public service unions and weaker Government

In a radio programme to honour Ken Whitaker on his 100th birthday, broadcaster John Bowman played an excerpt from an interview recorded around the year 2000 in which the esteemed public servant set out a defining mark of a functioning democracy and good government.

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Water commission's message is clear - bottle the charges if you want to save your political skins

Ten years ago when people were dying unnecessarily because of deficiencies in our cancer services, Professor Tom Keane, a Canadian expert, was hired by the government to improve the situation. The nub of his advice was to reduce the number of hospitals delivering cancer services from around 30 to eight specialist units. This was not a money-saving exercise but a transformation that would deliver fairer, faster access and safer services.

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Siptu boss has gone for jugular on pay talks - and it's totally reckless

As president of Siptu, Jack O'Connor, on behalf of his members, has threatened the Government that unless a decision is made within a week to begin talks by February to accelerate "pay restoration" for public servants, he will ballot his members on strike action.

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There can be no going back to pay madness

In this paper recently, Brendan Howlin, leader of the Labour Party, proposed, as a way to resolve the current industrial relations difficulties, "a new deal that could be a longer-term agreement that delivers full pay restoration for all public servants - giving everyone a clear roadmap to get back to where they were before the crisis".

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If lies win votes, a 'rough beast' has been unleashed

'Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world' - WB Yeats

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Battle for the soul of An Garda Síochána can only be won by ending the cosy culture that prevails

In practically every case of institutional scandal and failure over the past decade, subsequent inquiries have concluded that, whatever else was wrong, ultimately a debased culture was the root cause.

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If Government surrenders to union muscle it will hurt us all

It looks like we are in for the proverbial 'winter of discontent', with young and old walking home in the rain and disruption to other vital public services, unless the growing demand from trade unions for large pay increases is met by the Government. We've been here before but there is something different about it this time in the strategies and demeanour of the trade unions.

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A real leader would dare to prioritise public services over pay restoration

When I contacted travel writer and consultant Eoghan Corry to check if I had heard him correctly on radio saying that there were one million visits from Ireland to Spain in the past year, he said: "No, it was 1.3 million visits, and new figures due soon from Spanish tourism authorities are expected to show the numbers rising to 1.4 million and possibly even 1.5 million."

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Policing watchdog faces a 'go along to get along' culture in Garda Síochána

About 15 years ago, I spent a week in a country house hotel, co-facilitating a strategic planning process with the 35 Catholic bishops serving in Ireland.