Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
Godfrey Fletcher of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland provided an update regarding the provision of emergency isolation units for CF suffers (Liveline, 8th Feb).
The organisation hopes to present proposals for a ten bed temporary portacabin to St. Vincent’s hospital in about two weeks. Plans are also in the pipeline for a ten bed unit in Beaumont hospital and another ten bed unit in Galway.
The HSE has committed to six single on suite bed units and are considering another 17. Mr. Fletcher warns, however, that the HSE has not confirmed that all these units will be ring fenced for CF patients.
Jennifer Tormey, one of the young CF patients who first brought their disgraceful plight to public attention said she would believe it when she saw action rather than words. Nobody can blame her untrusting attitude after years of broken promises by the HSE. She is also mourning the death of a close friend, 15 year old Ian Riley, who died last week from CF.
The letter below was taken from the Liveline website and speaks for itself.
Bernadette spoke to us on Tuesday 15th January 2008. Below is a transcript of the email she originally sent to Liveline.
Dear Joe,
First and foremost I want to thank you so much for the coverage you have given CF patients over the last few days. Unfortunately, after years of listening to the same thing over and over again, I have absolutely no faith in the HSE or in Mary Harney and am not holding out any hope that anything will be done.
I am 24 years old and have cystic fibrosis. I am currently an inpatient in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for a severe chest infection. I have been here since the 2 January and there has been no significant improvement in my condition. I have been informed that my disease is progressing and I won’t be able to regain the level of health that I had 6-12 months ago.
Transplant has also been put on the agenda. I can’t put into words how absolutely devastated I am-as a CF patient you make the best of everything and try to ignore the statistics that are staring you in the face, but when it is spelled out for you it is truly awful. Every day is a massive effort now as I struggle to fight and maintain the exhaustive regime of treatment I must undergo which involves oral, nebulised and intravenous antibiotics, physiotherapy, nutritional supplements (and possibly having a feeding tube inserted) and oxygen.
The constant stream of anger and indignation in the media must start to sound confusing to the everyday person as there is such a massive web of problems for us within the services and facilities we are offered. However I just wanted to add my piece and get it off my chest. Here are a few points that I feel are important.
En-suite rooms are NOT A LUXURY, they are a basic need.
Firstly, as has been pointed out lots of times in the last few days, going into the current mixed and cramped conditions in Vincent’s is extremely dangerous for CF patients. We are at a low with infection and are open to any bugs flying around. These bugs can spiral out of control and could kill us. That is a fact. It is not as if we are looking for some kind of luxury-we are just looking for the basic and necessary treatment for cystic fibrosis which is recognised as international best practice. We NEED isolation units with en-suites and we need them now.
Intensely depressing scenario regarding conditions
It is hard to describe how truly soul destroying it is to be put in a ward with 5 patients who are elderly and often senile and incontinent. I make a concerted effort each day to be strong and positive and to fight my illness, but just imagine trying to maintain this frame of mind when you are stuck in your bed because of o2xygen dependency while all around people are calling out for people who aren’t there, and are regularly soiling their beds or using a bedpan, making the smell in the ward unbearable. It is so horribly depressing.
May I also point out that the ward is where the meals are served. Would you eat your dinner in a public toilet? Because that is basically what I am expected to do EVERY DAY. Sometimes all I want is a bit of peace and quiet and maybe to curl up in a comfortable place on my own. Even this simple desire is not possible in here. Each time someone dies in your room you are forcibly confronted with the reality that someday this could be you. What did I do to deserve this? Do I not have the right to be protected from this?
Mary Harney’s private hospital “solution” and staffing levels.
Although all the coverage has been about the lack of facilities, it is important to note that the staffing levels are also dangerously inadequate. If you refer to the report on CF services in Ireland conducted by Dr. Ron Pollock this is stated quite clearly. However whenever the issue of cystic fibrosis is raised with Mary Harney, she tells of how funding has been allocated for new staff. While some funding has been allocated and there are now two consultants in St Vincent’s, all the consultants in the world won’t be able to get me a bed when I need it if it is not available, and they can’t magic isolation units out of thin air. If the problem is to be tackled extra staff alone will not alleviate our situation.
Also Mary Harney’s idea of freeing up public beds by building private hospitals does not help CF patients at all. While it MAY mean a shorter stay in A&E, which, I might add, is a ridiculously dangerous situation, it does not address the issue of single isolated room with en-suite, which are VITAL. I want some answers. Why is this allowed to continue? Would Mary Harney like to step into my shoes for a day? I don’t think so.
As I write this, my 6 bed room has finally quietened down, but I’m sure that I can look forward to some noise later on. Here’s hoping for a good nights sleep.
I also want to say that despite all of this mess, the CF team and the staff of St Vincent’s hospital are nothing short of amazing, and I feel so lucky to have them looking after me. I couldn’t ask for any better, each and every one of them is just fantastic.
Yours Sincerely,
Bernadette
Story from RTÉ Radio 1:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/1182265.html
Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar has just published a survey that reveals details of the latest scam in rip off Ireland (Drivetime, 8th Feb).
Apparently, businesses are benefiting by up to €40 million per year by imposing restrictions and charges on gift tokens.
Many tokens expire after a year but some, like Ryanair, expire after just six months.
Others have service charges. Easons will ‘generously’ accept tokens for a year but thereafter imposes a charge of €2 for every month the token remains unused.
Transaction charges, ranging from €2 to €4, are another popular method of extracting ‘free’ money from consumers.
Terms and conditions are not always printed on the cards, a situation that can result in unpleasant surprises and even embarrassment for consumers.