While driving into work this morning I turned on the radio for a few minutes as I was waiting in the McDonald’s drive-thru lane for my coffee. I generally don’t listen to the radio while driving into work anymore as the combination of caffeine and stupidity lofts my blood pressure to stratospheric levels.

I just caught the last few sentences of a piece concerning the death in state care of a seventeen year old boy. Apparently the Children’s Minister has asked the HSE, who are the ones responsible for children in state care, to hand over files related to children who died while in state care, and the HSE has refused. It appears that, to make things even worse, 6 children have died in state care over the past three months alone and 23 in the past decade, although the last number is still a guestimate as the HSE hasn’t released a final number yet.

Can you imagine any private organization which was responsible for the welfare of children having similar statistics and not being immediately closed down with those responsible facing criminal charges? Of course you can’t. As this is a government agency I can’t imagine anyone facing criminal charges for malfeasance, but the truly galling thing is, I can’t believe there will be any firings, demotions, or even harse words raised in a “frank discussion of views.”

Remember folks, the government isn’t run for your benefit, it’s run for the benefit of those in charge. Always has been, always will be.