There are just two people who sit alongside cabinet members at their weekly meetings, as a matter of right. The Cabinet Secretary is there to take the minutes. And the Attorney-General is there to provide the government with legal advice. There is nobody there to make sure that the government spends our monies wisely and efficiently. Nor, even though it is by far the biggest employer in the country, is there anyone to help the government with system design or process efficiency. Ireland is a state of laws not one of governmental efficiency.
Parallel with this state-sanctioned elevation of law comes occasional hero-worship of lawyers. In one of the final episodes of the Path to Power podcast series to host Ivan Yates, the question of why we have a general presidential election when the position of president is so powerless arose. Matt Cooper, who still hosts the podcast now that Yates has departed the scene, suggested that we could free ourselves from cumbersome elections if the Chief Justice was to automatically be made president, in the event of a vacancy.
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