Is a schoolteacher equipped to make good decisions about corporate governance?

I looked up Catherine Martin’s background last week, given the controversy surrounding RTE governance, the resignation of the Chair of the Board of RTE, Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

My suspicion was correct: she was a schoolteacher. A teacher of English and Music in a community school for 15 years.

Being a schoolteacher is a hugely importantly job in any society that wants to improve the culture.

But what skills being a teacher would give you for the task of calling people to account over corporate governance, severance agreements, employment law, duties of directors, and so forth is beyond me.

Let’s be honest: a teacher has no training or expertise in these areas of business/commercial endeavour.

Yes, she may have public servants guiding her every move and advising her well and with years of experience and no little expertise.

But at the end of the day the ultimate decision in all these matters is for the Minister.

And in this case she is spectacularly ill-equipped, from a professional perspective, to make such decisions.