When interviewed in 1987 Frank O’Reilly, who was Chairman of Irish Distillers and indeed the visionary architect of its creation, had this to say about the Irish civil service of the early 1950’s, “My reaction was one of astonishment at the system. The red tape was appalling. It took a pathetically long time to get the smallest thing done, licences for this and licences for that. The other side of that coin was the totalhonesty and dedication of our civil servants. We are very lucky to have such a good civil service.” It probably continues to be an apt description…

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