Privatisation agenda has no place in reform debate – Nevin Institute
by Lughan Odllum Deane
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| Tom Healy of the Nevin Economic Research Institute. |
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Tom Healy of the Nevin Economic Research Institute published a blog post entitled ‘Public Sector Reform’ (8th January). Tom cautions against conflating the idea of reform in the public sector with that of reorganising public bodies according to the logic of private enterprise.
Progress towards a more effective public sector is not and should not be confused with a drive to integrate into the public sphere the processes of commercial business. A nation cannot be run as though it were a corporation and citizens must not be addressed by the state as consumers.
“Too often the term and concept of ‘reform’ may be mixed up with an agenda that is driven by an ideology of privatisation, … as well as the introduction of norms and processes from the private commercial world that either do not fit at all or are badly matched with the requirements of the public sphere” - Public Sector Reform, Tom Healy, January 2016.
The metrics of success in the public sector are, by necessity, different to those in the private sector. Schools, hospitals and other public bodies must be held accountable for the work that they do, but to assess them according to criteria designed to measure success in for-profit companies will not deliver meaningful results. Read the full blog here.
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