Quango Listings:

So welcome to the Quango listings. Know your quango's out in the wild.

First, some Quango's in the news end of 2008 .. Controversially?

Equality Authority - www.equality.ie
Health Services Executive (HSE) - www.hse.ie/eng/
REPAK - www.repak.ie/
SEI - www.sei.ie/
FAS - www.fas.ie/en/
FSAI - www.fsai.ie/
EPA - www.epa.ie/
BORD BIA - www.bordbia.ie/Pages/Default.aspx

For a complete list of Quango's to read at your own leisure download this PDF courtesy of a Fine Gael report called "Streamlining Government". This PDF is Appendix A from this report:


To save to your harddrive - Right Click the image above, Save target as. If you left click the picture the PDF file will open in your browser.

The full document can be downloaded over on the right bar under the Quangolinks section - "The land of a thousand Quango's".

[ Permission recieved with thanks from Leo Varadkar TD, Fine Gael ]

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Quangopinion

Quango is an acronym for QUasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation. As said on the front page Irish Governments otherwise known as Fianna Fail for the last 20 years or so have had and still have a love affair with this phenomenon. Each of these Quango's it would seem - can be used by ministers as a way to deflect responsibility from either making decisions or from decisions made ( if bad ).

Indeed, some Quango's overlap with other Quango's, even double up. A number of smaller quango's can join together to form a bigger quango. In all these cases a strange thing happens - no staff cuts. So, surely, their must be duplication?

Reports Reports Reports ... In a quangocracy this is what Joe and Mary citizen gets - all issues are being addressed in a report prepared in some cases by one or other quango, should be finished in, let me see, a year or two or three. Then shelved for a dusty retirement.

Ireland has become so quangofied in recent years, alot of these organisations are now even advertising on the radio and television, some with very threatening deliveries. If a business doesnt put Quango A's sticker on its window then that business faces a stiff fine or jail. A large sum is then paid over to the Quango to avoid this dreadful outcome. In return for this sum of money you get a sticker, thats it. Mmmm ... this sounds like the type of carry on one see's in gangster movies - Whats it called again, ah yes extortion racket but this time its legal.

So here at Quangoland we will endeavour to shine a small spot light on this quangocracy because right now to all Irish Citizens it seems "You've been Quangoed"

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Quangireland!

We are indeed a Quangoland. As of 2006 "there are more than 800 quangos operating in Ireland, one for every 5,000 people. The government of the time was particularly fond of them — up to half of these unelected agencies have been created in the past 10 years ( back from 2006 )." From Sunday Times - Focus: What's wrong with quangos? Oct 06

"Paula Clancy, director of Tasc, a think tank for action on social change, calls it an “explosion” of quangos. A study she completed earlier this year ( 2006 ) estimated that there were 482 bodies at national level and another 350 at regional and local level. Nobody, however, can be sure of the extent of the quangocracy." From Sunday Times - Focus: What's wrong with quangos? 10/06

"Research conducted by the Democratic Audit Ireland project put the number of non-departmental public bodies in Ireland at national level at approximately 500, with a further 400 operating at regional and local level. Ireland has a ratio of one public body to every 4,000 citizens in Ireland in comparison with 1: 10,000 in the United Kingdom (Clancy and Murphy, forthcoming) ."From The Report of the Democracy Commission - (Page 73) 3/10/05


Finally there is WIKIPEDIA which has two interesting things to say:

"Quango or qango is an acronym (variously spelt out as QUAsi Non-Governmental Organisation, QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation, and QUasi-Autonomous National Government Organisation) used notably in the United Kingdom but also in Australia, Ireland and elsewhere to label colloquially an organisation to which government has devolved power. Lack of clarity over its meaning may have contributed to a decline somewhat in its use. The acronym can carry with it an implication of poor management and lack of accountability."

The Wikipedia article on Quango's even has a special section FOR Ireland, it says:

"The Republic of Ireland in 2006 had more than 800 quangos, 482 at national and 350 at local level, with a total of 5,784 individual appointees and a combined annual budget of €13 billion." From Wikipedia

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