Wasters

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

Will add to momentum for real reform of the public service

Ross and Webb have done the state some service in writing Wasters ... essential reading ... will poison the ears of the vested interests

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.

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.

Shane Ross

Nick Webb

Fascinating ... required reading for anyone interested in how crony capitalism and power work in practice in Ireland

The Untouchables is hard to put down. Read it and seethe.

The people who helped wreck Ireland - and are still running the show

In March of 2011, the Irish people elected a new government. But how much has really changed? 
 
In The Untouchables, Shane Ross and Nick Webb shine a light into dark corners of official Ireland to show that the blame for running the country into the ground goes well beyond Fianna Fail, that a dismaying number of the people who should share the blame are still in situ, and that the bad old mindsets haven't been shifted. They detail the destructive culture of cronyism that afflicts so much of Irish life, from the boards of the leading companies to the appointment of judges. They trace how the same civil servants, estate agents and bankers who presided over the crash have in many cases been rewarded with important new jobs. They investigate the workings of the law firms, lobbyists and consultancies that seem to have their fingers in every pie. They name names, trace connections, and show how the untouchables managed to do so much damage, and how they have held on to power and influence in Ireland.

The Untouchables

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Fascinating ... required reading for anyone interested in how crony capitalism and power work in practice in Ireland

The Untouchables is hard to put down. Read it and seethe.

Books by Nick Webb

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