If passing the parcel was an Olympic sport, we would be in with a chance of a medal.
Taoiseach Simon Harris

The following is worth reading, worth reflecting on.

It is an extract of an address by the Irish Prime Minister to the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Co. Wexford, on 30 August 2024, according to Mark Hennessy in The Irish Times, 31 August 2024.

Government departments and State agencies too often avoid responsibility and leave the public facing bureaucracy that is designed “around everybody and everything but the citizen”, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said.

If passing the parcel was an Olympic sport, we would be in with a chance of a medal,” he told the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Co Wexford, yesterday (on Friday, 30 August 2024).

I have a very low tolerance threshold for somebody telling me that, you know, that there’s some bureaucratic reasonwhy we can’t come together and fix this.

(…) More and more, I think, when it comes to public policy and to delivery of issues, [issues] cut across narrow, neatly designed departments, agencies and structures.

“The one thing that I’ve learned late, since becoming taoiseach in April, is that the job of a taoiseach in many ways is to try and overcome that. So you’re actually the only person in the Government who can pull all of the various strands together,” he said.

Mr Harris said he has told every one of his Ministers that they are “the representatives of the public in their departments, not the spokesperson for their departments”.

When I was in the Department of Health, I wasn’t there as a doctor. When I was in the Department of Justice, I wasn’t a guard,” he said.

“You are there in a representative democracy to be the voice of your people. It’s my job to be a disrupter.”

For more than a year, I have been trying again and again to get Members of Parliament, T.D.s, Ministers to take responsibility, to answer letters I wrote, to cut through the bureaucratic jungle the HSE is cultivating. Last summer, I filled in forms which I have been asked this year to fill in again. The same forms. For the same purpose.

How can I get the Taoiseach to do his job that he defined for himself trying to overcome distractions and pull all of the various strands together when neither the Minister, the Department, nor the HSE show decisive leadership?

How can I explain to the Minister of Health, the Minister for Disability, the Minister of Finance that they are “the representatives of the public in their departments, not the spokesperson for their departments”.

We came back from Lourdes earlier in the week. Despite the heavy rain and the floods during the week, we managed to take part in a procession, do a bit of shopping, and light a few candles. I don’t think there is a place anywhere else in the world where you can get such a variety of statues of Mary or candles so big they have to be carried on trolleys.

There can be miracles when you believe, right? Even Whitney and Mariah have known this for a long time. The song is a bit cheesy but still nice, especially when you are in the right mood for it. Though I think that most miracles are not only happening because of believe but because of hard work, commitment, and love.

The miracle of Lourdes happening there every day is the peace, the love, and the friendship people share with each other in Lourdes.

We need some of this in our every day life.

We need more and even bigger candles to shine peace, love and friendship into our lives. Giving us the confidence, the strength, and the determination to disrupt self-serving bureaucracy and get it to work for the people who are paying for it to support them.

Then we won’t be in with a chance of a medal in ‘passing the parcel’ but in ‘getting things done’.

There can be miraclesWhen you believeThough hope is frail, it’s hard to killSimon, who knows what miracles you can achieve?