Thread by @2legged

The screw-up which has left #Dursey Island without a link reveals a set of problems which are endemic in Irish public service. Over-centralisation creates cumbersome and bureaucratic decision chains, which lead to absurdly long response times. >>

https://twitter.com/OSullivanJennie/status/1510015492030873600

It would be easy to blame individuals, but the problems are structural. >>

In a more localised system of govt, these decisions could have been made on the #Beara peninsula, 22km away in the local big town, CastletownBerehaven. >>

But Castletown Rural District Council and all the other rural district councils were abolished in 1925, only a few years after independence. >>

So the decisions were made by Cork County Council, based 142km away at County Hall in Cork City, which is at least a 2hr15min drive away. >>

But even the County Council lacks sufficient contingency funds to cover the costs of the replacement ferry service for 6 months, which have been estimated at up to €200,000. >>

So the ferry was delayed until an emergency grant was obtained from Dublin. The Minister Heather Humphreys had to sign off on it, which she did on 30 March. >>

That ministerial decision came ten weeks after the receipt of the cable car inspection report on 17 January ... and now we have to wait for a cumbersome tendering process. >>

This is absurd, almost farcical. The decision in principle to provide a replacement ferry could and should have been made within days, and there should have been a local contingency fund sufficient to cover the cost. >>

I am sure that a local procurement system could have organised a tiny ferry service (capacity of the cable car= 1 person + 1 cow) for a LOT less than the €200K figure quoted here. >>

I assume that all the public servants and politicians involved are decent, hard-working, competent people who have done their best. >>

But the #Dursey cable car saga shows how Ireland's system of local government is broken by design: bureaucratic and centralised.

Time to #DecentraliseIreland, so that a cabinet minister is not needed to provide a wee boat to a wee island.

./END

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