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After learning they had not received an invite to the launch, a DoD staff member showed the Sec Gen how she could watch it "anonymously" online pic.twitter.com/5mUv9PyiOy
Of course news of the "toxic" relationship will not surprise anyone in the broader defence organisation. @agtgibson's recent thesis contains a good summary of the discord between the organisations (from pg 269 on) pic.twitter.com/F45vTVBnx7
Irritation over the manner of the launch of the review and the media coverage was also expressed by senior DoD officials including the Sec Gen and the head of comms pic.twitter.com/ZUq5U2utww
We are learning to argue and debate and to tell each other the truth. This is, of course, no minor thing. But the processes of reform are unfolding too slowly. One has to have the courage to admit today: if the administrative system remains immobile, unchanged, we shall not cope with the tasks of reform.
- Mikhail Gorbachev to the 19th Communist Party Conference 28/06/1988
One more thing on this. The ACOS's investigation focused initially on who prompted media coverage of the Review article. Email from ACOS to COS says @RACO_DF not to blame and highlights how @ConorKing1980's comment may have helped calm tensions. pic.twitter.com/jxxksXReSX
The problem is, that when politically powerful people get their noses out of joint, they tend to react with lawyers and individuals further down the foodchain end up contemplating their navels in the High Court, wondering if they'll lose their house...even the backwater that is the DoD is still a Govt Ministry and People Who Matter (copyright Gene Kerrigan) will rattle their newpapers and the true message will be trampled on in the rush. The DF may be in a manning crisis but that's not as important as the good name of PWMs.
The DoD are a relic within the civil service. The last bastion of promotion based on tenure, not ability, or education. All other departments encourage their staff to advance their career by educating themselves. I know a man who once worked as a logistics manager with the HSE, in one of their warehouses. Went and studied medicine so he could communicate with the doctors and consultants in medicine at their level. Qualified now as a doctor of medicine, non practicing. Works now as a hospital administrator overseas while on a "career break".
You'll be hard pressed to find anyone working in Revenue that doesn't have some version of 3rd level accountancy under their belts.
What was once called social welfare is now staffed with ambitious officers, many with a social science background, keen to ensure those who need assistance get it, and those who are engaged in welfare fraud get whats coming to them.
Dept of agri is full of young folk with science backgrounds travelling the countryside educating the average farmer on things like soil management, disease control and gender selection through AI. (And not AI of the computer type).
The relative success of moving garda clerical staff from the DoJ to the direct control of the Garda Commissioner has shown a path. DoJ survives because it has other things to do other than ensure AGS functions. The GS now has an ever increasing body of civilian clerical staff who report directly to sergeants, inspectors and superintendents.
The DoD is not so lucky.
Now that the DF realises it can administrate its own affairs, if it was let, the future for the DoD is precarious. It is the snake that has been eating its own tail for years.
Last edited by na grohmiti; 6 February 2021, 04:16.
For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.
I had a feeling the DOD would respond. Nothing like a civil servant with a grudge lol
There was always a close control structure between the DOD and PDF. The latter had the day- to- day pulse of Service units by embedded Command cashiers and Purchasing Officers in certain units. These in house DOD officials had coffee and lunched with Officers and attended Mess Dinners. Information flowed one way and that coupled with access to RO's meant they always knew where to put the instructive boot in. There was always a feeling that the whole Defence Organisation was to be controlled and contained. The chain of perceived authority was from the lowest CS through the GS to the units with occasional direct hits to some individuals or CO's.
Those that had unfettered power were ruthless with their own staff and in a certain instance, after an expenditure of 2000 Euros, to improve safety on a new ship, the officer who authorised the spend, was hazed to a serious heart attack. I remember calling to his home in Dublin to see him being spoon fed by a minder.
There was always a close control structure between the DOD and PDF. The latter had the day- to- day pulse of Service units by embedded Command cashiers and Purchasing Officers in certain units. These in house DOD officials had coffee and lunched with Officers and attended Mess Dinners. Information flowed one way and that coupled with access to RO's meant they always knew where to put the instructive boot in. There was always a feeling that the whole Defence Organisation was to be controlled and contained. The chain of perceived authority was from the lowest CS through the GS to the units with occasional direct hits to some individuals or CO's.
Those that had unfettered power were ruthless with their own staff and in a certain instance, after an expenditure of 2000 Euros, to improve safety on a new ship, the officer who authorised the spend, was hazed to a serious heart attack. I remember calling to his home in Dublin to see him being spoon fed by a minder.
Over a 2 grand spend? How? I thought certain Officers could spend up to 5K without prior approval if it was an urgent requirement? Certainly, we had them in the Don and it was used to buy tools in an emergency. I saw it happen several times and it was a great facility to have in a crisis.
Over a 2 grand spend? How? I thought certain Officers could spend up to 5K without prior approval if it was an urgent requirement? Certainly, we had them in the Don and it was used to buy tools in an emergency. I saw it happen several times and it was a great facility to have in a crisis.
The project was financially run by an A/PO, with a HEO and an EO in attendance. The HEO took an instant chance to allow an extra to change the swing of a steel door which eventually changed his life and ended it prematurely.
Maybe, but the Department of Defence was established by the Ministers and Secretaries Act of 1924, giving it the power for the " Administration and business of the raising, training, organisation, maintenance, equipment, management , discipline, regulation and control according to law, of the Military defence Forces." It is still with them that real command lies.
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