On the same news broadcast (3rd item) that Bertie Ahern informed the nation that he was proud for himself and Ireland to be asked to address a joint sitting of the US Congress a mother of an autistic child angrily said that she was embarrassed to be Irish (7th item).
Embarrassed and I would add confused because this woman was referring to the surreal world of Irish politics where a school for autistic children has remained idle for a year because the Health Service Executive has refused to provide the necessary staff.
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, instead of doing her job by putting pressure on the HSE to provide staff has blamed the school for not going ahead and opening anyway.
Nothing to do with the HSE, nothing to do with the Minister – it’s the school’s fault.