For shame

Most mornings I get up at six o'clock. I turn on our digital radio (to restate: 2013's best buy by a long way) and catch the last hour of the John Creedon show. This is followed by the Late Debate which I take or leave. If the introduction includes terms like 'arts funding', or 'headage payments' then I know its time to change over to WDAS "Philly's best R&B and classic soul station" and get my groove on for the day.
However, last week proved to be pretty much soul-free. First up was Wednesday's program about the consultancy fees paid by Irish Water, followed by Thursday's astonish revelations about the retirement package made to the previous CEO of the Central Remedial Clinic (CMC).
From my geographical (8,600 kilometers) and temporal (15 years and counting) distance it increasingly seems to me that when certain Irish people reach the upper levels of society a blinding sense of entitlement sets in. They fall prey to a form of delusional solipsism, thinking they deserve the monetary rewards now coming their way. At most they are lucky, some are cunning, and a few like Paul Kiely are purposefully deceitful.
Added to this quality is a solid stance of impunity, a sort of assumed gombeen privilege that absolves them of concepts like ethical behavior and morality. How else to explain the head of the CMC using public donations to enlarge his pension? How could he possibly conceive of this as morally justifiable? A 730,000 euro pension pay off a significant part of which was financed by contributions from the public who thought the money was going to help people with disabilities. Is there some sort of moral trip-switch on the back of Kiely's [thick] neck that he flipped to 'off' once he sat down in the CEO's chair at the CMC?
Similarly egregious was the 50 million Euro of public money spent on consultancy fees by Irish Water. That's 10 million a year for each of the past five years of austerity. 10 million a year would have fixed a lot of water pipes, improved treatment plants, and may well have prevented parasitic outbreaks like the one that happened in Galway city a couple of years back. In 2010 the Irish Independent estimated that 1.3 million people were drinking unsafe water because 290 water treatment plants in the country needed to be upgraded (you can read the full article here).
You can buy the Irish Independent for €2.
Which raises the question of what the other €49,999,998 of consultancy fees was actually spent on?
Presumably it was such a question that Audrey Carville, the presenter of the Late Debate, wished to pose to the government. However, nobody from the government showed up. Not a single representative from either Fine Gael or Labour would appear on the programme. A stark albeit silent admission that they knew they were being called on to defend the indefensible. So why bother? Because they are our public representatives, not merely government or political party representatives, and in a functioning democracy they should account for themselves and their behavior. Not to do so is both political cowardice and an affront to what a democratic society is supposed to embody.