Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The second thing is to abolish TLAC. TLAC is an internal affairs system for the promotion of higher civil servants. Higher civil servants should be promoted like anybody in a semi-State company, for instance. If help is needed for an appointments commission or whatever, it should be a normal appointments process.

People I went to school with who became civil servants were among the brightest. They are still the brightest, with extraordinary intellectual talents, but the system has been developed not to allow such talent to flourish but rather to encourage people to move slowly and conservatively forward without rocking the boat, right up to the top. I guarantee that if competition were introduced for those positions, they would come to the top with credit. Anyone who has dealt closely with our civil servants knows the value and the intellectual capacity within the system. It is only a matter of releasing it. I have done it in other organisations. Give people the opportunity to flower and they will do it.

I was greatly disappointed that this Government did not come to a deal with the unions before Christmas. This was the only trade union group in Europe, it should be remembered, which conceded to its own members and the Government of the day that since the State needed €4 billion, it would have to get it.