Wasters - Softcover

Ross

3.53

36 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844882519 ISBN 13: 9781844882519

Publisher: Penguin Ireland, 2010

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During the years when all seemed well with the Irish economy, a scandal bloomed in front of our faces but went mostly unnoticed: the scandal of public waste. Vast overspending on infrastructure (including a number of white elephants), extravagant use of overpriced consultants, the creation of dozens of quangos whose primary purpose seemed to be jobs for the boys, the culture of junketry that took hold in the semi-state sector and the Oireachtas - these and other dubious practices flourished during the years when the state's coffers were overflowing. The insiders benefited; the rest of us got ripped off. Now, as the state scrambles to bail out the banks and to bring order to the shattered public finances by taking money out of the pockets of ordinary working people, Shane Ross and Nick Webb tell the story of the wasters: the people who perfected and benefited from the culture of cronyism and waste. Thanks in large part to Ross and Webb's journalism in the "Sunday Independent" exposing scandals in FAS and CIE, we already know part of this story. In "Wasters", the authors show how wide and how deep the rot runs, and they show that every scandal has one thing in common: insiders profiting at the expense of ordinary people.

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About the Author:

Shane Ross is an independent Senator, Sunday Independent business editor, and author of last year's number one bestseller The Bankers. Nick Webb is deputy business editor of the Sunday Independent.

Review:

Guaranteed to make your blood boil -- Mark Cagney * Ireland AM * This is a book best read in small doses so that your indignation doesn't get eroded as you go. The catalogue of errors, incompetence and feather-bedding will annoy readers and further confirm the opinion the the public service is in need of a radical shake-up * Sunday Tribune * A fearless account * Sunday Times * Will add to momentum for real reform of the public service * Irish Times * Ross and Webb have done the state some service in writing Wasters ... essential reading ... will poison the ears of the vested interests * Sunday Independent *

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