The Illusion and the Tragedy

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday January 24, 2007 18:59 by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics

Justice and Health politics and 3.5 % control

This evening I was listening to Minister Michael McDowell on Radio 1 at 5 O'Clock in relation to the murder of the young innocent man last night. This 'Dying Wasp' has an amazing lifespan. McDowell spoke of a research committee on how to tackle organised crime. This so called genius is now almost 7 years in power, between being Attorney General and in the last 5 years, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform......

Last year there were 67 murders. Enda Kenny - the Boy Scout, called it the year of the Gangster. Enda is a decent man but he meant surely 'Bertie's tent at the Galway Races and all the gangsters within'.

Now back to the illusion of McDowell. He is the most incompetent Minister probably in the history of the State .... of Justice..... To name but a few recent legal fiascos (Under age sex, and total mayhem of a release of a paedophile. It took FF ministers to sort it out and behind closed doors. This surely does not say much.

McDowell's obsession is not with gangland, it is with the Provos. Two years ago, McDowell shouts 'I know the IRA are smuggling at Dublin port - what has become of that cry? McDowell accused Adams, MCGuinness, Kelly Ferris that they are members of the IRA Council yet they all have coffee between meetings at Stormont and in England. What an amazing man, McDowell is.

In the wake of Berties Charity Ball in Manchester and many days of Dail 'Gruelling', McDowell turns to Bertie and says something to the effect 'I think we got away with it'. Now there is PD transparency and accountability for you.

McDowell is out of his depth in relation to gangland. When you live in Dublin 6, one can have no reality of life in the inner city and other areas. When you are educated in private school, the impact is even less. You may think I am crazy but I would bring back a sober Jim McDaid to assist McDowell in Justice. Why, you may ask?

McDaid has been in the sh.. so many times, that he is now maturig. He is a fine doctor and is back in a stable family relationship again.

The papers said yesterday, we are the wealthiest nation in the world

Sometime ago, health restricted, I was accompanied on my daily walk in D4. A little spurt of energy prompted us to enter the Herbert Hotel. Neurological and psychiatric problems have destined my life of one dimension but, sometimes it can activate me in a way I would never have acted in my pre-accident life.

I focused and in my sight were two P.D.s' I reckonised. One the Tanaiste Mary Harney and another Fiona O'Malley. All of a sudden, attention focused to my endeavours via the internet to get a system of health that resembles what exists in the UK or the North. A sleuth of words on the inept health system, the lack of primary care, the existence of benefits advertised by Oasis and other bodies yet so mercurial, flowed from my being. The outcome was that her PA assured me they would take account of my unusual health history, experience and that they would respond in future to emails.

Over a year later.....All I can say is well done Joe Duffy show and particulary Rosy, I wish you well and admire your courage. Well done Patients Together, well done to all individuals who keep on making a stand for the rights of the invidual and our basic right to an effective, efficient, free system of health provision.

Health is a commodity. Health needs investment and it needs profits but how this is achieved is for the financial and economic gurus to determine. Personally, I cannot see that the building of more private hospital on sites adjacent to near existing public hospitals is the answer.

In the 1950's when Ireland was faced with a chronic health crisis and a need for hospitals. Government sent people like Noel Browne, Minister and Michael Scott Architect (Liberty Hall and Busaras) and others to Eastern Europe to assess and critique the Health system there. Now we have information at a finger tip and world wide and what is happening?............we are caught up on religious conflicts; petty jealousies, and the basic indecision of the state to comprehend hard facts i.e. middle management has too much control, consultants hold too much of a cartel and are allowed use the existing system of private beds in public hospital to ensure above average incomes. Meantime, the primary care service has fallen flat on its face. 40,000 nurses public - Is this not too many?

In the dispenary days, doctors worked the 7 days a week and were responsible for getting cover for their leave. It was similar for the district nurse. The doctors formed a union for rights, ordinary basic civl rights. Again, those who decide, bent with the power, and it was time to allocate public patients to doctors with GMS, and public patients became known as 'Fee per item'. This basically resulted in unpredictably high incomes received by general practitioners in the 1970's and 1980's. This set the pace for the hospitals and the petty jealousies.

Now Mary Harney, I cannot remember what I said to you but given my health problems, I have experience, needs and the social isolation in Dublin 4, to assist you to get to grips with the nubbof the problem.

McDowell again intrigues himself. As Attorney General, he tried to prevent the setting uo of the Morris Tribunal and look at what has been the outcome. At least 10 Gardai have been sacked and approx. 6 face prison for corruption. Even Rumpole of the Old Bailey cannot figure out what kind of a barrister McDowell is.

McDowell breaks the back of the Prison Services and saves the taxpayer 70 m euros on overtime. He shouts 'I am a genius' then he makes Mr. Lynam in Meath a multi millionaire, paying way above the value for the land. He then wants to criminalise all Mental Patients. Yes, close the Central Mental Hospital and move patients to meath. Mental Illness is not about being in prison. This move is a backward step in civl rights.

Why could he not have used Mountjoy and its centrality for people with mental health?

I will tell you why - PD corporate greed puts itself about the value of people who are mentally ill......and who are seen as an underclass to be hidden away and stigmatised further.

Celtic Ireland is uncaring and full of greed. It has trampled over every moral in Irish society. We have 110,000 children under the poverty line but McDowell did say 'inequality is essential for a growing economy'.

Enda Kenny may not have the cunning of Bertie Ahern just yet but someday people will regret how they failed to recognise honesty and integrity. I have no party affiliations but I live in a 'Little Sicily".

Anybody who would have Martin Cullen in charge of Transport must be sniffing cocaine - it was found in the toilets of Dail Eireann - I believe, last week.

The PD's have 3.5% of a mandate in the country yet they have the power to form a two tier society. So is Bertie really a socialist or Do I Live in an Illusion.

Orla Hardiman, Neurologist spoke on Questions and Answers.
Orla and others like her talk sense. They know - Neurology is tough work and people who survive, like me, are within a system that is negligent to a persons rights - in my case, a person who paid their tax.

Hospital is acute and a short period as I discovered in Zimbabwe but life is hellishly long when services do not exist.........

Orla spoke of a form of free flow between GP's and Hospitals.....Time is here to listen to people, I reckon.....