There was a tiny chink of light in the all-pervading gloom during the week, when Brian Lenihan appointed TCD Professor, Patrick Honohan, to the position of Central Bank Governor.
What would have been a normal event in any other European republic was rendered earth-shattering in Ireland, because Prof. Honohan is the first 'outsider' to be appointed to the post, meaning - not a civil servant.
This fact in itself is truly pathetic, and goes a long way to explaining the criminal mismanagement of the economy and its financial sector by the authorities. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out that a career civil servant in the Department of Finance is, by definition, a devotee of 'groupthink' in his department, and will bring not a glimpse of independent thinking or assertiveness to the post of Governor; qualities that are fundamental to the job if it is to be carried out successfully.
I suppose we have to be grateful for small mercies, even though this appointment is probably one more item on the Government's list of 'too little, too late.' Nevertheless, Prof. Honohan's posting may yet prove to be significant if it represents a turnaround in Lenihan's determination to carry out root and branch reform of the public service. This would require many thousands of appointments like Honohan's, to overcome the lethal inertia and sense of 'entitlement' that has literally cost us billions and shows no sign of changing by itself.
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