Just Mary by Mary O'Rourke

Author:Mary O'Rourke [Rourke, Mary O’]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780717154104
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan

Chapter 11

PUBLIC ENTERPRISE

I approached my new role as Minister for Public Enterprise in a way which for the most part was very much in line with my own instincts — which were and have always been inclined in favour of the interests of the workers and the unemployed, as opposed to those of big business. I suppose these were values I had inherited from my father, whose own thinking, as I have recounted earlier in this book, was greatly influenced by the ideals of socialism — even though he ran Gentex very successfully for 20 years, employing at times well over a thousand people. For these reasons too, I had always been keen at various stages in my career to consolidate the strong links I had with the various trade unions — this was certainly the case during my time as Minister for Education, as Minister of State for Labour Affairs and indeed later in Opposition, as Shadow Minister for Employment and Enterprise.

I remember well my first day in the Department in Kildare Street in June 1997. The Secretary General for Public Enterprise at that time was John Loughrey, and he met me on arrival. Then there was the usual drill when a new Minister arrives in office, by now familiar to me — meeting the various Assistant Secretaries throughout the Department and their key staff; the handover of the files for me to peruse, and so on. This time, there was a very crowded agenda indeed and I made it my first priority to set about meeting the boards of all the ‘semi-states’ (i.e. the state-sponsored companies and businesses). In the days which followed, I would go to meet with them at their various HQS and I was able to engage in some good initial discussions.

It seemed to me quite early on that one of the most immediate causes for concern was the CIÉ group of public transport companies, and in particular, Iarnród Éireann — CIÉ rail. When I first met with their board and the then Chief Executive, I was party to a number of complaints — justified, it seemed — about the lack of finance being made available by government for the essential repair work needing to be done as a matter of urgency on railways throughout Ireland. I became very worried about this because I had the example before me of a number of years earlier when, in August 1980 and during a time when Albert Reynolds was Minister for Transport, there had been a terrible rail crash at Buttevant. On that occasion, 18 people lost their lives and 62 were injured. And yet for many years, nothing had been done to invest money in maintaining and updating our railway tracks or systems.

It seemed that some of my worst fears had been confirmed when, on Saturday 8 November 1997, I got word at home that there had been a rail crash at Knockcroghery, a village about 12 miles away from Athlone, on the way to Roscommon. I went straight there, to find a scene of chaos.

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