Review of The Untouchables by Shane Ross and Nick Ross (Penguin, 2012)

My review of Shane Ross and Nick Webb's new book appeared in the Irish Times on Saturday.  It starts thus:


Shane Ross and Nick Webb’s previous book, Wasters, concerned the misuses of State funds, poor governance, organisational failure and cronyism in public bodies in Ireland. In The Untouchables they turn their attention to individuals in positions of power and influence, and the organisations they work for, who have managed to weather the present crisis somewhat better than might be expected.

Ross and Webb’s principal argument is that the blame for Ireland’s woes extends well beyond politicians and that, despite calamitous failures, most of the architects of the crisis remain in their posts or businesses, and the same mindsets predominate.

Precious little reform has taken place, they write, despite the election promises of Fine Gael and Labour for quick action. Fianna Fáil and the Greens may have paid the price for the disastrous decisions they made in the previous government, but their elite networks, political patronage and poor systems of governance and regulation mean many powerful individuals and vested interests continue to thrive. 

To read the rest, click here ...

As a little experiment I put my twitter address at the end of the piece to see if it led to any more followers.  Over the weekend I picked up five new followers, one of whom was not because of the piece.  So it had some effect but much less than one might have thought.