The other day, I visited a highly profitable multinational company in the west of Ireland. The complex was high-spec, the workers well-paid and well-educated. Despite (or maybe because of) being in a non-unionised plant, workers’ terms and conditions were far better than most heavily unionised workplaces.
The place was spotless and, as the largest employer in the town for over 20 years, the firm seemed less like a footloose corporate opportunist and more like a fully-fledged member of the community.
The overwhelming sense was that this was a well-run place, staffed by Irish managers and workers, profitable and organised.
There was a sense that this is the way corporations in the modern world should operate: to the highest standards and with the minimum of fuss.
This is an image of the Ireland that we could all be proud of. It is a snapshot of the Ireland which features in IDA brochures.
This is high-tech Ireland where best practice is applied and quality is delivered. Remember this place is run by Irish people, not Germans. So we are capable of delivering.
We are not a chronically disorganised nation and when we put our mind to it Ireland can be world-beating. We just need a vision that aspires to this, sets targets and does not tolerate shoddiness.
But something happens when you leave this workplace. You depart the world of ‘‘what is possible’’ and re-enter the old Irish world of ‘‘what is tolerable’’. The most visible expression of the other Ireland, the ‘‘what is tolerable’’ Ireland, is our lamentable road system.
Driving back from Mayo to Dublin in the freezing fog last week on boreens with no markings, no signs, no lighting and no verges, where the margin separating life and death is wafer-thin, reminds us all of why we have to shout stop. Dicing with death is no fun with four Polish lads in bomber jackets driving a left-hand-drive Audi Quatro up your ass, while the oncoming super-truck, laden down with 07 Renault Clios, clips your wing-mirror at 80 miles an hour.
We have an election coming up and we need to show the cronies who run our country that this road hell is not good enough.
The entire four-and-a-half-hour ordeal was an appalling experience, particularly when contrasted with the what-is-possible world of a smoothly operating multinational.
The crux of the issue is respect. Any government that believes it is fine to preside over a road network like ours has no respect for us. It smirks in our faces, knowing that we will take it.
Our national road network is a disgrace and driving on it is terrifying. The road from Westport to Longford is a joke. In parts, it can be no wider than a suburban street, yet it hosts lorries, juggernauts and super-trucks hurtling in either direction, throwing off muck and dirt. There are no signs at junctions. In fact, the only information proffered clearly is an outdated Special Olympics host town proclamation.
Howl ong do you think we will be told that Ballaghadereen is host to Qatar – and do we care at this stage?
Why do we tolerate this? What other country has a population that puts up with this type of nonsense? How is it possible for a highly productive, educated, and largely, well-behaved electorate to vote in the same people who cannot even build a road network comparable to countries with half our income? Not only are our roads dangerous, they are stressful, filthy dirt-tracks which are more suited to the poorest areas of Latin America than a rich, western European nation. If money is not the problem, what is?
The problem is attitude and management.
It is the second-rate attitude and management of the organs of the state. The pathetic ‘‘road works’’ between Castlebar and Longford are a good example of this.
On at least three occasions, a lad with a ‘‘stop/go’’ sign emerged out of the fog to announce major roadworks. These ‘‘works’’ amount to nothing more than a couple of JCBs, five immigrant fellas in a hole, watched by a few of our own who were smoking butts. This was not a roadwork, but a patchwork community employment scheme which knocks off at 5pm. Where are the motorways that are standard in other civilised nations? Most tellingly, why do we tolerate it?
The problem is our own low standards, which encourage our politicians to disrespect us and allow contractors – usually mates of the politicians – to rip us off.
Do you think the Irish management of the US multinational I visited in Mayo would tolerate such low standards? Do you think they would still be in their jobs if they did? Could you imagine such a lack of ambition or vision being rewarded in the real world?
I realise that our politicians do not have a magic wand that can provide instant solutions, but how hard can it be to build a road? They are the managers and, although they might not realise it, they are employed to make the country run. The buck must stop with them.
In other countries, Portugal being a good example, the road network has been upgraded substantially in the past ten years. With the exception of the Dublin-to-Belfast route, everything here has been a shambles. There is no point trumpeting the Port Tunnel – it’s only a little over three miles long. Think about the huge task of building a motorway system in alpine Austria. Now that’s impressive.
The central point is that two Irelands exist. There is the respectful, high-tech world, where many multinationals and Irish companies operate, exposed to competition and keen to attract the best staff and the best customers. On the other hand, there is the offensive, pre-historic world of the Irish state, which doesn’t give a damn about the public and is managed in away which suits internal vested interests. This is best exemplified by the road network.
We, the drivers of Ireland, should impose our own NCT – a road NCT. If the roads in your area do not pass such a test, the politicians should be voted out. Simple accountability directly linking the political class with the state apparatus might focus a few minds.
In this election year, it’s time to shout and put issues, not spin or party politics, at the centre of political debate.
Dear reader, I’ve got to head underground and bury myself in a new book project, so I’m taking a few months sabbatical to research and write. The column will return later in 2007. Happy New Year!
David, how right you are! At the end of the day it is the road network that is primarily responsible for the alarming road death rate in Ireland.
Rural roads are disgraceful and third world. The lack of consistency in road markings, the maintenance and erection of signs and the non-existant lighting would not be tolerated in any other ‘developed’ country. Again spot on!
Time for the responsibility for the road network to go private? Go to New Zealand and gasp at the what they do!!
Political will is badly required here.
Best of luck with the book. We look forward to your return.
Hurry back soon,!!!
Our sanity depends on it.!!!!
You might take a look the book “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke”, if you are looking for ideas and new trends.
David,
I hope that you will be back with your columns soon. They are always a pleasure to read.
Aidan
We have had the same government for the last 10 years,all the indicators say they will win the next election also,so why should they bother fixing the roads,its not an election issue.
As you said in your previous article,we are an infantile nation, we still only see whats in our pockets,as time moves on we will value infrastructure as a quality of life issue and demand better.
For now we are a nation of immediate needs and wants, the government see this and play to it.
We are also a placid people with little sense of outrage.
Fair point about the roads, but surprised to hear of workers in a multinational being “well managed” and “well paid.” I remember working in a dept of 500 in one multinational where these days about 85% of the workforce earn just 11% more than what the minimum will be in a few months time. Six years ago new hires were getting 44% more than what it was at the time. Even in the non-manufacturing sector, wages are being heavily pressed downwards against competition (and sparkling new offices) in Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur, not to mention China. Even one IDA bleat… Read more »
……………and don’t forget the trains, the buses, the airport etc!
But seriously David, I think it’s a little naive to think that we only have bad roads because we tolerate them. You say vote these eejit politicians out, Fine, but who do we vote in? They are all impotent. I personally blame Bertie for things like this……….I wish we had a LEADER (who I don’t know…) rather than the second-rate football manager we fawn over at the moment. Actually, I just have to get out of here…..
Good luck with the sabbatical, David. Maybe the roads will have improved when you come back?
David, Right – our transport network has not had the focus and planning that we deserve. You are right – many cross country routes are not getting the right priority and funding. Nevertheless, you paint a picture that is far darker than the reality I have seen. You said “In other countries, Portugal being a good example, the road network has been upgraded substantially in the past ten years”. But our roads network _has_ been substantially upgraded in the last 10 years. Take the N15/N17 from Letterkenny to Galway. 10 years ago one would have passed through Donegal Town, Ballyshannon,… Read more »
Laura If you work in manufacturing, then you are going to suffer a huge downward squeeze in your pay and conditions. Multinational or not. Or, as the efficiency of your plant increases through better mechanisation, you will likely lose your job. Irish firms are happily world-class also in treating employees like caged rats when it suits them. That is not the preserve of multi-nationals. There are plenty of greasy shopkeepers in Ireland too, as per Yeats “Easter 1916”. Sure, the multinationals play the tax break game. So do the greasy shopkeepers in their Enterprise Ireland annual reports. That’s life. Do… Read more »
Paul, I agree that we cannot blame multinationals for our working conditions. In the main, working conditions are pretty good and we have a lot to be thankful for. And Irish employers wouldn’t be one jot better, and are often worse, than their foreign counterparts. Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with striving for better conditions – and there is good reason to believe that our conditions are under pressure, as mentioned above, by competition from parts of the globe where workers are treated with contempt. In that sense I would take issue with your dismissive tone when you say “That’s… Read more »
Fair point Ciaran. I didn’t mean to be as dismissive as it sounded. However, we do need to be realistic. In my opinion, there is no point in people on sinking ships (=heavily subsidised farming, low value commodity manufacturing) looking for better conditions. They should be looking for liferafts and the next ship. I can’t see why people should not be looking for government support for these businesses, but should either try to find a way to make these businesses work, given globalisation, etc. (for example, focus on organic farming, higher value artisan products, etc.) Or reskill – tough and… Read more »
Dear David, I was happy to see one person around RTE who had stolen fire from heaven which you used to fuel the thought processes of some couch potatoes. I am not surprised you are taking a sabbatical. You have done your job with gracefully, and I hope you got the loot for it. The roads need attention from engineers who have also stolen some of that fire. We need CYCLE TRACKS all over rural ireland because of all the building. People can no longer SAFELY WALK OR CYCLE on any county road. People need exercise. It is not on… Read more »
See link about Civil Liability Act, interesting .
http://www.jimmyharte.com/news/news6.htm
See link above
Spot on as usual Mr McWilliams. In 1999, the much touted NDP was announced which would see the completion of a network of motorways/high quality dual-carriageways between Dublin and a number of major towns/cities across the country to be completed by the end of 2006 along with a number of time-saving public transport initiatives and other infrastructure projects. Now we have reached the year 2007 with less than half of the NDP’s work (at least on the transport side) completed. The rest of the work is being intergrated into the holy-grail of ‘Transport 21’ due for completion in 2015 –… Read more »
The piecemeal, labour intensive policy of random pothole filling is an 1950s DeValera inspired old fashioned Fianna Fail policy. It was designed to make the job as labour intensive as possible. This practice and policy has not changed and we are left with old fashioned DeValera nonsense ever since. He an his cronies ripped up the railways. Ripped up the tram lines in Dublin. Closed the western corridor railway, declared air travel for rich people and sold their planes to the British and declared that road travel was for the rich too. What we are stuck with now is Fianna… Read more »
when you leave the high tech factories you enter a surreal third world country ruled by farmers, developers and corrupt (and incompetent) politicians. The beginning of the answer is to get fianna Fail out. Then the hard part begins..
David, I just watched big pre- election leader debate on TV tonight (RTE 1 Primetime). I was hoping your theme of accountability would figure largely in the debate but unfortunately I was disappointed. Enda Kenny never pushed the accountability theme. This is a really important issue for many people I know. Accountability will drive better service. On Crime in the debate: Bertie admits that “it’s a disgrace” that a criminal in a high security prison is able to phone liveline show. I agree Bertie, but last I heard the Governor of Portlaoise is still in a job! SACK HIM, he… Read more »
I was 13 years out, in UK and EU and am now coming up to 2 years back. I did well abroad – made a little money, built on my decent Irish education, got a family. Back here, the public sector seems largely unchanged – introverted, slow, self-protecting and largely irrelevant to people like me. But also far too large and with low standards. I find labour relations in Ireland puerile – at a time when other countries are coming to terms with notions of personal brand, managing ones own career, taking responsibility, a part of Ireland still is focused… Read more »
[…] The first article from the archives is about the search for some meaning at Christmas as the nation continued to splurge in late 2006 and the other article from that week about the state of the roads. […]