Public Service - Power and Authority Without Accountability and Responsibility

I see that the last person to be identified with the BTSB’s scandalous behaviour on Hepatitis C is now not to be prosecuted. This is the end of this particular era and illustrative of how public servants can never be held accountable for their actions. Everybody is responsible so nobody is responsible.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0113/1231738220359.html

Charges against ex-biochemist in hepatitis C case dropped

THE CHARGES against the former principal biochemist in the Blood Transfusion Service Board relating to the infection of women with hepatitis C have been dropped by the State at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Cecily Cunningham (66), Hollybrook Road, Clontarf, Dublin, had previously lost a High Court attempt to stop her trial going ahead on the charges which had arisen from alleged contaminated blood products affecting seven women.

She appealed to the Supreme Court which put a stay on her trial pending the outcome of a judicial review.

Shane Murphy SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told Judge Katherine Delahunt that the State was withdrawing all charges against Ms Cunningham.

Judge Delahunt discharged Ms Cunningham from the court and set a date next month for a hearing on the issue of costs.

Judge Delahunt had been told previously that the trial could have continued for four weeks. “Witnesses are ill and we are anxious to avoid delays,” Mr Murphy said then.

The only other person charged in connection with the hepatitis C saga was Dr Terry Walsh, formerly assistant national director with the BTSB, but these proceedings collapsed on his death.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie in his High Court decision published on July 7th, 2007, found that while what he called an “inordinate and inexcusable” delay on the DPP’s part in processing the case breached Ms Cunningham’s constitutional right to a speedy trial, there was “a far superior” and “paramount” right of the public to have the charges prosecuted.

Mr Justice McKechnie described the Garda investigation into the hepatitis C saga as “exemplary” and stressed that there was no fault on the part of the Garda for the delay.

Paul Anthony McDermott, for the DPP, applied in the High Court for the costs of the case but this was resisted by counsel for Ms Cunningham on the basis that the judge had found there was blameworthy prosecutorial delay.

Mr Justice McKechnie made no order for costs at that hearing.
Ms Cunningham was in court for the High Court decision as were several members of the campaign group Positive Action. One woman was in tears after judgment was delivered.

Ms Cunningham claimed in her failed High Court application that the information on which the charges were brought against her was known to the DPP from the publication in March 1997 of the Finlay report into the hepatitis C saga.

The Garda report arising out of the following investigation was sent to the DPP in October 1999 and Ms Cunningham was charged in 2003.

This is the essential characteristic of the Irish public service and of public services in general. They have the power and authority to take and enforce decisions that have consequences that cost billions and not be held accountable or responsible thereafter.

A brief negative mention in a report from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General is the worst sanction they will face.

Just look at some of the major decisions that come to mind:

1. Emerald Meats – civil servants in the Department of Agriculture collude with Larry Goodman to force his competitor out of business – legal fees and compensation of €40 million
   
2. Child Abuse - civil servants in the Department of Education ignore warnings about the treatment of residents of residential institutions for decades leading to the establishment of the RIRB and CICA – up to €1.5 billion - €1 billion in compensation and the remainder in legal and administrative fees
   
3. Hepatitis C, Haemophiliacs and AIDS – civil servants in the Department of Health fail to regulate the operation of the Blood Transfusion Service Board and fail to take action against the authoritarian behaviour of its senior staff – €400 million - direct compensation, cost of tribunal and legal appeals, insurance scheme - €200 million
   
4. Army Deafness – civil servants in the Department of Defence fail to take action against army behaviour in not allowing use of hearing protectors to be used on firing ranges despite multiple warnings - €300 million in compensation and legal and administrative fees
   
5. Nursing Home Fees – civil servants in the Department of Health illegally overcharge and continue to do so despite multiple warnings to this effect - €500 million in repayments after illegal overcharging
6. Lourdes Hospital Redress Scheme – civil servants in the Department of Health fail to regulate the actions of doctors or implement reporting and management information systems that would readily identify discrepancies
   
7. PPARS – public servants in the HSE fail to take action on an out of control payroll project despite being warned repeatedly by internal personal and external consultants – €300 million
   

These seven examples have a total cost of €3.04 billion at the time at which they occurred. Expressed in 2009 money, this would be larger again. There will be many others.

Who has been held responsible? Who has resigned or being sacked?
Taxpayer’s money squandered. And what is worse, people died. The behaviour of the BTSB over contaminated blood and Hepatitis C, Haemophiliacs and AIDS resulted in the deaths of several hundred people. Murdered by meetings, minutes and memoranda.