It’s only right Shane Corr kept his job. Now, reverse the baffling decision to cut his pay and demote him
OUR regular readers will know Shane Corr’s name thanks to the many revelations he has brought to public attention.
Because of his diligence and good citizenship, we know that the Department of Health compiled dossiers on families – who were litigating for State support of their autistic children – for tactical insights into how to force them into settlements.
We know that successive health ministers tried to cover up the true €12 billion bill racked up in State liability for illegal nursing home charges and how thousands of families were wrongly charged for the care of their loved ones over a staggering 30-year period.
The disclosures made to this newspaper, along with those to RTÉ and the Business Post, plunged him into trouble with the civil service.
The news, that the whistleblower will not be fired from his post, is a welcome endorsement of the considerable act of public service that Mr Corr performed as a true voice for the average citizen at the heart of Government.
However, the notion that he is to receive a pay cut for standing up for what is right, rather than what is convenient – and lifting the veil on the hermetically sealed bureaucracy behind Government decisions affecting us all – is a disgrace.
Mr Corr’s revelations are the very definition of public interest, as acknowledged by two Government ministers. What does it say to whistleblowers everywhere, if one of the main impacts of their disclosures is a harsh financial penalty for speaking out?
The lesson learned there is to ignore your conscience and keep quiet about wrongdoing.
The erratic, to say the least, timeline of the disciplinary proceedings with long hiatuses where the authorities appeared to take a hands-off approach to Mr Corr’s activities, followed by intense focus on a single disclosure to the Business Post, cannot be seen as anything other than an attempt to stymie him. If the Government really wants people to act from a sense of the common good, then its ministers should immediately look into this punitive strike against Shane Corr and do whatever necessary to reverse the baffling decision.
OSCARS LIGHT FIRE UNDER IRISH FILM
The 2024 Oscars are an astonishing success story for this country, with Cillian Murphy winning best actor for his role in Oppenheimer and the lowbudget Poor Things picking up four Academy awards.
The smaller film’s triumph is a breakthrough for Element Pictures, giving it the sort of industry heft previously seen with Miramax which carved a unique niche in the 1990s turning quirky, independent films into both critical and box office successes.
In today’s newspaper,
Element Pictures CEO Ed Guiney urges us to leverage our newfound credibility in Hollywood to produce more Irish stories for the screen and buttress the Irish film and TV industry. His message is timely, particularly in the context of RTÉ struggling to find its way in the new media landscape.
Our Oscars glory shows that Irish filmmaking is alive and thriving. And that whatever excuses the national broadcaster offers for its considerable shortcomings, a lack of talent or commitment from our native film industry cannot be among them.