DOING IT MY WAY

Where would you be without consultants?

Don't answer that one.

I remember when I was in the Department of Finance with responsibility for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).

Some consultant or other, whom I can't put my hands on at the minute as, while the NESC reports are commendably online, they are not digitally searchable.

Anyway, this fella in his report for the Council drew the Department's attention to the most sophisticated and satisfactory way to measure compound growth. He actually set out a detailed formula and suggested the Department might make use of it instead of whatever steam driven calculator it appeared to be using at that time.

I was very curious to find out how there could be a more sophisticated way to measure growth than the compound rate formula we were using.

According to this guy, his method was busy at work down to the nearest milisecond and it gave you a result you could only dream of.

So I copied down our formula and his formula side by side and managed to resolve them both into a common formula.

They were exactly the same. The only difference being yer man's window dressing.

Now, all I needed was an endorsement of my calculation by an authority in the field. I consulted a former Taoiseach's son, who was a bit of a genius in these matters, and he agreed with me.

So, all I'm saying is that all that glisters is not gold. In this case, however, it was. But I don't remember how much the Department paid for the glister. Maybe it was thrown in for free. But it was pretty insulting when you come to think of it.