User:AisFH/sandbox

The Sandbox - EP1

Later career
Following his retirement from the Department of Finance in 1994, Cromien remained an active public servant, taking on a variety of other roles in different organisations. For a period of 6 months in 1997 he served as the director of the National Library of Ireland after the retirement of his predecessor, Patricia Donlon, on health grounds. He also made a contribution to the National Library in the form of a donation of his own personal diaries which documented his career in the civil service. Having a keen interest in the natural world, Cromien also held the position of director of the Zoological Society of Ireland between 1998 and 2001 as well as serving as a member of the caretaker board of the National Museum of Ireland during that time. In 2006 he was elected as a chairman of the Royal Irish Academy, helping to oversee projects such as the Hunt Museum Evaluation group which sought to make the collections of the Hunt Museum in Limerick accessible online to the general public.

Following on from his work with the Department of Finance, Cromien continued to take an interest in issues regarding public spending well into his retirement, lending his financial expertise to reports such as the 2001 review of the Jeanie Johnston project and working for the Archdiocese of Dublin as a member of their finance committee. He also authored a report on another area of the civil service, the Department of Education. This report was a thorough critique of the administration of the Irish education system, in which he claimed 'the urgent [drove] out the important' and that inefficient administration was at the root of many of the system's shortcomings. This report went on to influence changes in the Department of Education as a government task force was formed in response to Cromien's criticisms and suggestions.