Mary Harney: Why do you appoint Corporate Cronies to State Boards?

national | miscellaneous | press release

Monday December 20, 2010 20:06

by Cllr Gino Kenny - PBPA

300 People Appointed to State Boards.

Gino Kenny, the People Before Profit Councillor for Clondalkin, has challenged Mary Harney’s pattern of appointments to state boards, claiming that she displays a deliberate class bias against working people.

Press Release: 20 December 2010

Clondalkin Councillor challenges Mary Harney:

WHY DO YOU APPOINT CORPORATE CRONIES TO STATE BOARDS?

Gino Kenny, the People Before Profit Councillor for Clondalkin, has challenged Mary Harney’s pattern of appointments to state boards, claiming that she displays a deliberate class bias against working people.

‘Mary Harney is responsible for the largest number of appointments to state boards but she has systematically used her position to promote corporate cronies.

‘Of the total of 291 new appointments due to be made before February 2011, Mary Harney will appoint 96. This is three times higher than any other Minister.

‘But Mary Harney has consistently displayed a class bias in who she has appointed to these boards. Her appointees are often drawn from a narrow golden circle.

‘The Health Services Executive provides a good example of Harney’s bias against working class people.

Harney’s two latest appointments to the HSE board are:

· Frank Dolphin, a director of a Rigney Dolphin, company that outsources business process from both the public and private sectors.

· Nuala Hunt, a chartered accountant and tax consultant.

‘These two figures from the corporate world will deepen the overwhelming class bias of the HSE.

‘Even before these appointments, the HSE was dominated by figures drawn from the corporate elite.

‘That board includes the chairperson of the legal firm Arthur Co, which coincidently won a €9 million contract from the government to advise on the banking crisis – even while acting as a client for Bank of Ireland; the chairperson of the Irish Bankers Federation; a former managing director of Eircom; a manager with Deloitte, a company which co-incidentally charged the HSE a huge bill for introducing the infamous PPARS system; a professor of accountancy who is married to a former PD politician.

‘

There are no trade unionists or representatives of community organisations on the HSE board.

‘Despite the fact that Mary Harney claims to represent the working people of Clondalkin in the Dail, she clearly thinks that people who are drawn from our social class could not help in running a health service.

‘In Mary Harney’s outlook, an accountant who serves the wealthy elite must know more about how to run a health service than representatives of patients who rely on the public health system’

‘With this class bias, it is no wonder that the HSE has become a dysfunctional bureaucracy.

‘I challenge Mary Harney to a debate in front of the people of Clondalkin. I would like her to tell us why she considers bankers and company directors more appropriate people to run a health service than people who have to depend exclusively on the public system.’

Ends