The poor should be worried

Letter published in the Irish Times 19th February – The Harneyisation of Irish health continues.

Madam,

GPs have received a letter from the consultants and nursing staff of the emergency department at Beaumont Hospital. The letter states:

“The [ emergency] department is in urgent need of an ultrasound machine which is required to speedily assess internal organ damage resulting from traffic accidents and knife trauma wounds.” And with commendable forbearance the letter observes: “It would be reasonable to assume that the machine would be a standard piece of A&E equipment.”

However, it appears there is no money for it. So the A&E staff are going on to the streets to beg for the money – €24,000 – to buy the machine. They hope to raise it through a golf classic or, for non-golfers, by a one-off donation of €100.

This is a scandal. A scandal for Bertie Ahern. A scandal for Mary Harney. A scandal for the HSE. A scandal for the Government. A scandal for the limp Opposition. And a scandal for the local politicians. Here is a major trauma centre in a national hospital having to get down on its knees to beg for basic equipment.

The poor should be worried. And so, may I say, should the rich. If you have a knife stuck between your shoulder-blades, it is no time to go flashing your Plan E card at the Gullawntha Medical Clinic with the oak tree in the atrium and three ladies playing the harp. You will be redirected to the public hospital and advised to have a nice day.

Repeatedly, general practitioners hear praise from patients for the staff at Beaumont A&E. They comment on the courtesy and care of the doctors, nurses and ancillary staff. And this in spite of the squalor and overcrowding provided by the Government.

The Harneyisation of the Irish medical scene is becoming more and more vivid. Wealth is further swelling the wallets of the wealthy. Mary Harney’s relocation system means that millions upon millions of euro are being relocated from the taxpayers’ pocket into the insatiable pockets of the earnestly rich.

Her plan is clear.The poor will please keep left and know their place. The richly insured will please head for the (very far) right.
Would Ms Harney please write a cheque today for €24,000 for that ultrasound machine in Beaumont? If she has difficulty in getting that sum together she might perhaps consult her friends who have special talents in the art of subtle acquisition.

Yours, etc,

Dr CYRIL DALY,

Howth Road, Killester, Dublin 5.

Learning the first rule

The lifting by Fine Gael TD Terence Flanagan of parts of a speech written by Labour TD Joan Burton was an amusing incident with a dark side (Six One News, 14th item)

Flanagan is of a new generation so it is disturbing to observe that he has already learned the first rule of Irish politics – Lie through your teeth unless you’re caught red handed.

Loyalty to the party is supreme

The parents, friends and supporters of autistic children who packed the public gallery in Dail Eireann last week enthusiastically applauded Fianna Fail TD Mary O’Rourke when she severely criticised the Department of Education for failing to provide adequate education for autistic children (Irish Times, sub req’d).

O’Rourke was speaking on a Fine Gael private members’ motion calling on the Government to provide a badly needed Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) system for autistic children.

Her fine sentiments were quickly exposed as weasel words when she cynically voted against the motion she had just supported. That the motion would be defeated was never in doubt so O’Rourke was voting in her own interests and that of her party rather than any concern for autistic children.

Her cynicism was compounded over the weekend when she featured on a number of radio shows emoting about how she was haunted about the tragic death of a nephew as a result of autism. But even the death of her nephew from autism wasn’t sufficient to shake O’Rourke’s absolute dedication to the party.

Marian Finucane (Sunday) expressed puzzlement about this behaviour, here’s how O’Rourke answered (My emphasis).

O’Rourke – Ah Marian, can you look at me and say ‘you’re puzzled’ that I voted with my party?

Marian – But you tend to be fairly straight about things.

O’Rourke, Well, I am and I’m very straight, I’ve never voted against my party and I don’t intend to do so.

Marian – But straight also includes voting for your convictions

O’Rourke – Oh Marian, actions speak louder than words. I have worked for ABA now for many years, I intend to continue to work.

If I left my party, first of all one vote wouldn’t have made any difference…what influence would I have outside my party to influence party policy…I tell the truth and I speak from knowledge and from my mind…So to those who say why didn’t she vote with the Fine Gael motion? – I will never vote against my own party.

This blind dedication to the party is reminiscent of Soviet style politics. Loyalty to the party and the party leader takes precedence over all other considerations.

What’s truly amazing about this latest episode of political hypocrisy is the revelation that there are still people out there who trust and believe in politicians like O’Rourke. People who still believe that cowardly hypocrites like O’Rourke retain any semblance of integrity or honesty.

Queen of hypocrisy is not amused

There was a curious exchange between Marian Finucane and Fianna Fail TD Mary O’Rourke on last Sunday’s show. The discussion concerned O’Rourke’s hypocritical stance regarding the Fine Gael private members’ motion calling on the Government to provide better resources for autistic children.

Marian referred to the following letter published in the Irish Times on Friday 15th Feb.

Madam,

Can there be anything more illuminating about the “sleeveen” politics of Fianna Fáil than to see Mary O’Rourke TD stand up and play to a packed Dáil public gallery claiming she supported parents having the choice of ABA for their special needs children, only to then go and vote against the Fine Gael motion that would have given those parents exactly the choice Mary O’Rourke claimed to support a short time earlier?

For sheer brass neck and hypocrisy you just can’t beat Fianna Fáil and for sheer stupidity you can’t beat the people who, despite this, will still go out and vote for Fianna Fáil.
Yours, etc,

DESMOND FITZGERALD, Canary Wharf, London.

The discussion continued;

Marian – Did you see the letter in the Irish Times during the week?

O’Rouke – I did and I know that man and I would prefer to say no more because, well, I’ll tell you after…

Marian – He was talking about the ‘sleeveen politics’ of Fianna Fail

O’Rourke – Did you notice the signature?

Marian – Yes, I did

O’Rourke – Yes, indeed.

This ‘Yes, indeed’ was delivered in a sniffy Queen Victoria ‘We are not amused’ tone.

I have no idea what the connection is between the author of the letter and O’Rourke but clearly the Queen of Hypocrisy is not amused by such impertinence.

Embarrassed to be Irish

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.

Excusing the holocaust of abuse

No doubt many Catholics will be relieved that Cardinal Connell has withdrawn his High Court action to stop the Government-appointed Commission examining diocesan child abuse files.

David Quinn and Breda O’Brien, two of the most vocal apologists for the Catholic Church, will be especially relieved that this spot of embarrassment has concluded.

Writing in the Irish Independent last Friday Quinn tells us that he received about a dozen requests from the media to talk about the Connell case but he turned them all down because after ten years of commenting on clerical abuse he was sick of the whole thing.

‘Fortunately’, on this occasion he was prepared to come out of hiding and grace us with his opinion which in reality amounted to a series of excuses for Connell’s behaviour. Here they are;

The Cardinal has an unfortunate way of saying things that attracts controversy. This leads to misinterpretation by the public ‘egged on by a media determined to sock it to him’.

The Cardinal is in a very bad emotional and physical state, he’s practically a broken man.

The Cardinal took the case because he believes very deeply that certain advice a person receives from a lawyer is confidential and should remain so.

The Cardinal was probably annoyed when he found out that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had handed over all files to the Commission.

It’s easy for the media friendly Dr. Martin to hand over files, it’s not him being investigated.

Quinn provided even more excuses on RTEs This Week programme (1st item).

The Cardinal is probably suffering from tunnel vision and a certain incapacity to see the bigger picture.

The Cardinal is probably mentally competent but may be surrounded by certain people who reflect back to him his own point of view.

Finally, Quinn reaches a conclusion of sorts; The Cardinal is not absolutely wrong to be doing what he’s doing, he has a point, but on balance he’s probably wrong.

So, ignorant public, aggressive media, health problems, pressure from lawyers, bad advice from ‘certain’ other people are all to blame but not the Cardinal, not the man who knowingly transferred a suspected child abusing priest to a hospital which had children among its patients.

Breda O’Brien was even less convincing in her fumbled attempt to defend this irresponsible prince of the Catholic Church (Drivetime, 7th item).

Asked did she think the Cardinal was misguided O’Brien just couldn’t bring herself to give a straight answer.

“I think that, I suppose in a sense you have to, it’s very difficult…I think I know why he’s doing what he’s doing but I think in the current climate it cannot but be misunderstood and misinterpreted as an attempt to hide.”

For most of the discussion O’Brien kept quiet but became very vocal and passionate when she got the opportunity to speak on one of her favourite topics – those members of the church who have been wrongly accused of abuse.

“Do you know I was just thinking about the whole Nora Wall case.

That at the height of it somebody that was absolutely innocent could be caught up and convicted of rape and sentenced to life; so was there suffering, my God, there was suffering.

I’m thinking as well of priests who are falsely accused and a case settled recently where the accuser was sent to prison, rightly I think. So I suppose there’s a balance to be kept.”

It’s revealing to observe O’Brien’s vague and fumbled response when talking about the part played by those responsible for failing to properly protect children from abuse with her straight talking outrage when talking about the small number of priests and nuns falsely accused.

She and other Catholic apologists labour under the delusion that the sufferings of a relatively small number of priests and nuns can be compared to the countless thousands of lives utterly destroyed by the holocaust of abuse perpetrated within the Catholic Church.

Copy to:
Breda O’Brien
David Quinn

Bozo and Borgs

It really is fascinating to observe how quickly Green Party politicians have been assimilated Borg like into the dodgy world of Fianna Fail double speak.

Green Party TD Paul Gogarty speaking on The Late Debate (Tuesday, 12 Feb) was in no doubt about who was responsible for keeping an eye on the murky activities of Fianna Fail.

It’s the electorate who are the moral guardians of Fianna Fail, nothing to do with us.

A caller to the show asked: Who is that clown from the Greens?

Gogarty helpfully replied – “Bozo is my middle name.”

Letter from an angry doctor

Letter from an angry doctor in today’s Irish Times.

HSE’S HOSPITAL HYGIENE CAMPAIGN

Madam,

I recently had the misfortune to see the latest HSE hospital hygiene TV advertisement. This features a patient asking a doctor if he has washed his hands – a question that apparently needed to be asked as the medic in question had failed to do so.

This campaign is a disgrace. Not only does it casually insult every health care professional in the State, it also manages completely to avoid the real cause of the spread of infectious diseases – chronic hospital overcrowding. Needless to say, the patient in the advertisement was not shown lying on a trolley on a hospital corridor without any sinks.

If the HSE were serious about this issue, it could spend its money on creating extra isolation beds, appointing additional microbiologists and perhaps screening staff for MRSA.

Instead, it pays for expensive advertising campaigns in a pathetic attempt to deflect attention from its abysmal failure to run a clean and efficient health service.

However, I strongly suspect that these advertisements have nothing to do with hospital hygiene. To me they appear to be little more than blatant anti-medical propaganda designed to undermine the profession in the eyes of patients. Such cowardly and sinister tactics are worthy of a Stalinist regime.

Patients are being exposed to life-threatening illness in our hospitals. The blame for this rests entirely with our Minister and her incompetent administrators. No amount of slick propaganda will ever change this fact.

Yours, etc,

Dr RUAIRI HANLEY, Francis Street, Drogheda, Co Louth.

Bertie the bomb

It has been obvious for some time now that Bertie Ahern has something to hide. Nobody with an ounce of intelligence, with the possible exception of Martin Mansergh, could believe otherwise,

But Bertie’s High Court strategy can have only one meaning – It can only mean that he has something really big to hide, something so big that he is willing to risk everything on one roll of the High Court dice.

Meanwhile, the Greens continue to insist that the bomb ticking away beside them is none of their concern. It’s a personal matter for Bertie, it’s a matter for his lawyers; it’s a matter for the tribunal.

They’re unlikely to survive the explosion.