Charlie took on the mandarins
FOR many years the plight of parents whose children have autism has fallen on deaf ears, because no government minister has been able to confront the mandarins in the civil service – as Charles J Haughey once did. As minister for finance, he introduced free travel for pensioners in the
Sixties, against the wishes of TK Whitaker, the powerful secretary general of the Department of Finance. Mr Whitaker later acknowledged his opposition to free travel at the time, but said he was grateful to avail of it when his own time arrived.