Watching the Detectives

It's very rare that I'm in favour of our government spending money (our money, remember).

It's a feeling that precedes the 'current economic climate' (or whatever the latest euphemism is for the crap we find ourselves in.)

It's not that I don't believe in state administered roads, hospitals, social welfare etc: On the contrary, given human kinds inherent selfish, illogical nature, important services can't be left to chance or, goodness forbid, the market.

It's just that I don't trust the current administration to do it well.

I'd love to see a Scandanavian model of government in Ireland, but sadly decades (if not centuries) of 'sticking it to the man' has left Ireland a country where backhanders, brown envelopes and bent politicians are the norm and centralisation leads to expensive flops.

When you couple that with government ministers who are 'entitled' to be treated like Marie Antoinette, you get a bankrupt country with eff all to show for it.

If you think I'm overstating the fact, I'd ask you to consider just three of many decisions: the e-voting fiasco, the decentralisation debacle and the PPARS disaster.

In three short moves that's well over a billion euro wasted, on badly thought out, ill costed decisions. Lets be honest, it's merely the tip of the iceberg as well.

That the Irish people have little faith in the institutions that have run this state since independence, whether they be politicians or the church, it's hardly surprising.

So the news that we need to invest in yet another costly computer system couldn't come at a worse time.

The head of the Garda inspectorate Kathleen O'Sullivan said that her team were "really stunned" when they discovered the antiquated systems in place in Ireland. At present Garda management don't know:

• How many calls are being received
• The nature of the calls
• The geographic spread of calls

So while it's as clear as a truncheon to the head that the Gardaí badly need a new computerised dispatch system, I worry about how it will be implemented in this grand little country of ours.

After all, the last system for An Garda Siochana (Pulse) didn't exactly work out fantastically. The white elephant cost over €61 million, is available in less than half of Garda stations around the country and if you believe what many Gardaí say about it, it doesn't really work.

I hope to goodness that this system is implemented soon as it's clearly desperately needed and that it's done at reasonable expense to the taxpayer because we simply can't afford yet another white elephant.

But I won't hold my breath. How did George W Bush put it again? Something about fool me once...