Direct Action Protest Leaves Harney Seeing Red In Cherry Orchard
dublin |
rights, freedoms and repression |
feature 
Monday November 01, 2010 21:26
by éirígí PRO - éirígí
Oppose December's Blood Budget
éirígí activist Louise Minihan today poured red paint over Mary Harney's clothing in Cherry Orchard Hospital, Dublin.
Indymedia Links:
Harney moves to close St Luke's ahead of schedule? |
Harney moves to close St Luke's Cancer Hospital |
Dail passes 'close St Luke's Bill' |
Vital centre faces closure |
No Private Hospitals – Fund our Public Hospitals |
Roscommon Hospital protest 14th August 2010 |
Thousands March to Defend Health Services in Letterkenny |
The need for a united European response of workers against the attacks
Other Links:
The Susie Long story RTE audio, video links
Joe Duffy Interview on RTE |
Harney and husband |
Mary Harney's lasting contribution (irish independent)
Wikipedia Links:
Mary Harney |
HSE
The direct action took place as Harney was preparing to turn the sod at a long overdue mental health unit at Cherry Orchard Hospital. Just yards away is the Laurel Unit - an 18 bed ward for sufferers of alzheimers and dementia - which was closed down during the summer as a direct result of the HSE recruitment embargo.
Over the last number of years the surrounding community of Cherry Orchard and Ballyfermot have been forced to mobilise in defence of the hospital on numerous occasions. As Harney arrived at the hospital she was met by twenty protesters from the local community demanding greater funding.
The pouring of diluted red paint on Harney's coat symbolised the blood that she, Fianna Fail and the Green Party have on their hands. The cutbacks in healthcare that will be contained in Decembers blood budget will result in the unnecessary and avoidable deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the coming years. Irish citizens are literally dying to satisfy the demands of the IMF, the EU and the money markets. The wealth of this country should be used to provide a first class health service that is open to everyone and not to bail out the private banks.
Comments (58 of 58)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58Louise Minihan was arrrested and taken to Ballyfermot Garda station.
Minihan taken away in Garda car
Made my Halloween. Give them all a shovel and a Fas scheme. I always suspected she was tolerated(by the back-benches, as a Ministerial bed-blocker) because she knows where the FF bodies are buried.
Louise is on Joe Duffy right now, call or text in your support!
An Elected Representative doing such an act......we are surely in a bad place.
GOD HELP US ALL !!
Listening to Right Winger Joe Duffy at the moment , he is trying to badger his invited guest and
is bringing on his right wing whinjers to bolster support for Harney , and this Joe Duffy is the same
hypocrite who ' sponsored ' the late great James Connoly in his quest to have James nominated
for Man of Ireland ( or whatever ) which John Hume won .
This Lady Louise done what we ought to have carried out , well done Louise .
Just goe's to show us what the Meatloaf / Fat Cats who hide behind their hypocrites in R.T.E.
So far, Louise has got an hour of exposure on a programme with a huge listenership. She's doing well in the face of Joe Duffy's patronising and childish slagging. He has said "throwing paint on someone" about 30 times and every time Louise has clarified, "I poured the paint." But on the bigger issues she is also getting her points across very well. For example, saying that doing an ordinary protest and then going home again achieves nothing. I think Joe's hostility to her is probably gaining some sympathy for her. (Update: Joe has finally come around to saying "pouring" so Louise's repeated corrections have worked.)
Harney should have been dipped in galvanised barrell of Hammerite , if thats possible;
And we are the very ones who continuosly rant about these smug ' politicians ' and end up swilling
pints or gorging on cans and do sweet F.A. about it , could this act ( in the public interest ) be the
1st step to heaven without the likes of Harney & co , it will be the talk of the place for a good while
yet !
Well done Louise , and i for 1 dont give a fiddlers f***k whose party you are representing , as far
as i'm concerned you done me proud .
Well done Councillor Minihan. You have our full support and always had.
Joe duffy likes to bully people that disagree with his ( fianna fail) viewpoint . Louise did not let him have his way fair play Louise. A young man named Shane managed to get on and shamed joe for his bullying tactics and ponted out that he had done the same thing to Maura Harrington of S2S.
WELL DONE TO LOUISE AND SHANE FOR SHOWING UP THIS FIANNA FAIL STOOGE.
People are forced to pay a TV licence to pay the Salary of this gombeen ,Ignorant bully, another example of our corrupted State.
I've just finished listening to Joe Duffy, and the programme said something about warped values. Harney has presided over an ever worsening health service, where I have waited up to 15 hours just to be seen by a doctor on more than one occasion. I'm one of the luckier ones, others have died before they could get treatment (remember Susie Long).
But we are supposed to be appalled because Harney got some paint poured over her. As far as the government is concerned we can pay for private medicine (as well as paying our taxes for a crumbling public service) or we can lump it. And those of us on a pension don't have a choice anyway
A publicity stunt by a local councillor won't change anything, apart from bringing a smile to at least some faces. However we can use the discussion this will cause to make the point that Ireland is run in the interest of the very wealthy and that that people who think Ms Minihan's stunt is a far worse thing than what has been done to our elderly and sick are effectively saying that that Harney's temporary discomfort is a much worse thing than understaffed hospitals with pensioners on trollies and long waiting lists for treatment.
Where Eirigi got it wrong is calling this a 'direct action'. My understanding is that direct action means doing things that have a direct effect instead of just lobbying politicians or protesting. I think a direct action approach to the health crisis would mean things like hospital staff refusing to let wards close and others backing them with the promise of sympathy strikes if anyone was taken off the payroll. Stunts can draw attention to issues but direct action is the way for us to get together and win some victories.
Well done Louise. Mary is now "The Lady In Red"
Thats where Harney should end up , on a building site , but wait , we dont need any more buildings
except hospitals , never mind , she might get a proper job with a prison crew digging up the dirt ,
on her political pals .
The people at Crown Paints have just announced the factory is about to increase the workforce ,
Joe Duffy is a most dishonourable broadcaster , a 22 faced hypocrite who walks the ( waddle )
walk but no to talk the talk .
Louise , well done pet .
.
Mary Harney deserved entirley what she got Today There are many people quequing up to do what Cllr Minihan did today . Harney has blood on her hands and her consistent mismangment of the HSE has caused numerous unwanted deaths.
Wonder will Mary be putting in her Expenses Claim Today - for a 400 Euro Hairdo , New Dress etc etc expenses as she has done previously
And as for the elist Lord Mayor on his big wage and expenses how dare he call for the resignation of Cllr MInihan - maybe he should disapper along with THE GREENS, FF FG AND THE REST OF OUR SO CALLED POLITICANS WHO HAVE MILKED THE SYSTEM FOR TOO LONG
nice on Louise
I would suggest that the deaths of children in care and medical card patients who DIED because they could not purchase health care is of considerably more important than having to endure the sudden arrival of the law and order brigade expressing their sympathy for Harney, pathetic when people have to descend to swearing to make a point. Presumably, they are 'supporters' of the status quo.
The sight of this Angel of Death doused in blood would send a shiver up any one spine!!!!!!! And so it should caz if your sick or vulnerable
and living in this state you should be VERY AFRAID of this reaper.
My hats of too this councillor for this Act and well done Eirigi & its activists for this and the other actions theyve taken to try and awakin the dosile masses.
If this is the only action this mut and the rest of the her Criminal cohorts face they can count themselves Lucky.
As for that space waster Joe Duffy? He's an extremely well paid employee of State Television.He exists to act as a buffer for people to rant and rage
inside the boundries of a Controlled arguement.And make people think it will make a difference? RTE as an institute exists to repress the TRUTH in this country. Otherwise how could such corruption and
abuse of power in Church and State have gone on for so long in such a small state.Own the media Own the people end of story
People wont do anything unless the TV first tells them too in this country.So there SAFE
I'm disgusted with the likes of Matt cooper and Joe duffy and their pontificating tripe. Make no mistake about it, this woman is a patriot for the act she has carried out. Not on the face of it but this act may stir the Irish gombeens from their apathy and strike out against the puppet masters. The puppet masters who have contributed to the rape of your oil gas and fishing resources, turned private sector against public so that they can cut everyone's pay and bail out the rich and powerful. Wake up Ireland and rise up against these thieving scum. Make this country something to be proud of!
One of many photoshop images that are already doing the rounds.
Dont Accept the Blood Budget
Here are a few posters, not my work, just thought they were excellent and decided to share them...
Once again the keystone cops got it wrong,they arrested the wrong person while letting the real criminal walk free.The person in handcuffs should be Mary Harney ,the charge should be High Treason as she and her co-conspirators have sold OUR country out.It took seven hundred years gain independence and it took Feel and Fall ninety years to give it away again.Well done lads!!!
The image of Harney with the spade is just brilliant.
Which other left wing groups have issued statements in defence of this? Solidarity now people.
Call a Spade & Spade------------->>> Brilliant posters ,
This is a start of something Big .Big .....
Good to see irish republicans waging a campaign of nonviolent direct action and not getting sucked into the dead ends of parliamentarianism or paramilitarism.
These actions go beyond the Irish left being a talkfest. There was a similar one in the early days of the war on Iraq 2003 with a FF politician justifying Irish participation in the U.S. slaughter at the gates of the Dail and a young woman daubing him with red paint/symbolic blood. It's depicted in the documentary Route Irish. A picture, thousand words etc.
And if the minister for food visits a new bakery let him have a custard pie!
Stop the Blood Budget cause page now up and running on Facebook. Search for 'Support Louise Minihan Paint Protest - Stop the Blood Budget'
Adrian Kennedy Phoneshow ran this last night, Malachy Steenson of The Workes Party was on for almost 1 hour fully supporting Minihan and repeating his call that Ministers or establishment figures should not be allowed to go about their business as normal but should be heckled and hassled at every opportunity.
In response to questions of "Blood on her hands", he instanced all those children who had died in the care of the HSE during her tenure as minister, as well as others whose deaths her policies were directly responsible for and taht she could no longer evade responsibility for them
Text poll showed 74% of texters supported the action.
..that nobody has alluded to the fact that, as the last of the walking dead of the vampire PDs and their political philosophy of deregulation, deregulation, deregulation, which has seeped across the political landscape since CJH climbed up on his high-horse, she represents the rot that has reduced our prospects for economic autonomy to vanishing point, and shrinking.
I was waiting for Louise to ask Duffy what he thought of that(and couldn't get through on the phone to fill the omission).
Plus that he was all over the state-of-the-art facility she was launching, but nobody mentions that these photo-opportunists seldom turn up with their press-gangs at the regular closures across the country.
And just as they turned up to cut ribbons on centres for returned casualties of earlier emigrant tides, dont be expecting them down at the pier if you're taking the boat.
Mind you, by the looks of things, there will be a few chances to rectify that as the rest of the lights go out.
After listening to Joe Duffy yesterday with Louise Minihan, it proves to me that Joe Duffy is so upper middle class that he is not in touch with the real world at all, he has no idea of working class struggles, his tone said it all and any opportunity to get a low blow in was taken by Joe, also with the comments directed at Louise by the selective callers on the show sadly has confirmed to me that this country just has not got the capaicity to change their allegiance to FF, ordinary citizens calling the show yesterday in one breath they were saying they had no faith in the current government and disagreed with the bank bailouts and the current cuts, and in another they felt sorry for Mary Harney, do they fail to make the connection. It just proves to me that the country is so conditioned to a FF way of thinking from when the were born, they are unable to think outside the box and vote for change. People will protest, but they wont stand up the failings of the government but if somebody else does they are slated. We wil always be in this hole if people dont wake up and realise it is not a sin not to vote for Fianna Fail, ths sin in keeping them in!
Fianna Fail ' poured ' more than red paint over peoples heads / bodies to make a point of principle
Fair play to louise minihan for this action which took more guts than all of those pretend politicians that inhabit the self serving Dail.
It sickened me to listen to Joe Duffy and his little empire of a show. Who elected Joe Duffy - no one - how much does it earn - way too bloody much. Surely broadcasters are supposed to be neutral- he couldnt help but show his venom for someone that dared to challenge the system in a small way. This from the person who championed James Connolly - what a joke - cant help but think that James Connolly wouldnt have much time for a two faced charlatan.
This country is in shit and it is cause of the like of Harney and the rest of them - those people banging on about demcorcay should really think what they are saying. Our government decides when to fill Dail seats, panders to vested interests and looks after their own personal interests. Certainly not democracy by any stretch of the imagination. Our votes dont count - cause if they did then politicians would put the interests of the country before rich individuals and corporate interests.
More Harney photoshop & cartoons
Brilliant cartoon. Sums her up. can you post a link to a bigger version as that one is quite hard to read
It was Harney who dissolved the ten regional Health Boards and created the disastrous and lethal HSE that came into operation on 1 January 2005:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/96866
It is time to dissolve HSE and restore the authority of the ten regional Health Boards. For all their faults, regional Health Boards were more accountable, simply because they were not monolithic and had the other regional Health Boards as independent peers. With the ten regional Health Boards restored, the chances are at least one Board would uphold standards and not tolerate the abuses of another.
Breakingnews.ie are running a poll on whether the Harney paint protest was a legitimate form of protest or not. Close to 4,000 people have now voted and those who support the protest are at 42%.
Poll needs to be seen in the context of senator Eoin Harris's comments regarding the right to free assembly in Leinster House the other day:
"I want to ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform whether he will look again at the situation whereby every public march in recent years, from Love Ulster to the May Day demonstration and the demonstrations yesterday, has been hijacked by the same group of people – local thugs from around town, persons wearing Celtic jerseys, Éirigí and a motley collection of Socialist Workers Party persons. It is not good enough that young gardaí and the man who is outside the gates of Leinster House with his candles, which were broken yesterday, should be injured and hurt for the sake of exercising some vague constitutional provision to march. Why not march into the Phoenix Park and give people a place to march to? Like the constitutional right in America to bear arms, it is a constitutional right that needs revisiting, especially in current times"
If the conservatives have their way protesters will have to show ID before they join protests in specially designated areas.
Defend the right to all forms of political protest.
Log on and vote YES - poll is half way down on right hand side.
www.breakingnews.ie
http://www.breakingnews.ie/
Don't get me wrong, te HSE is choc full of administrative gobsheens that are out of touch with reality, but calling for its dissolution and reinstating the regional health boards is a step in the wrong direction. Multiple international reports and studies show that the best clinical outcomes for patients and the fairest system is via centres of excellence and a unified administrative system. Admittedly, this causes problems for places like donegal, with a low population density, geographical isolation and poor infastructure means that distance and time to a high volume centre is obstructive. In my opinion, there should be a cross border colalboration to create a unified comprehensive service, or at least a more geographically appropriate location of a centre.
Indvidual health boards by its very nature creates unequal standards of care, MORE unaccountability and decreased services. The principal reason that Irelands health system is such a shambles is because of the historic neglect and poor management due to the previous system. The HSE has a monumental task ahead of itself in trying to wrestle it into a modern, effective system.
No one wants to lose their local services, but in the end the optimal result from interaction with health services is more people getting better treatment, and that is what they are trying to do.
Again, not saying the HSE is doing a good job of it, nor do I consider them the be compentant, but the concept of the HSE and the general direction it is trying to move in is appropriate.
"but the concept of the HSE and the general direction it is trying to move in is appropriate."
"the fairest system is via centres of excellence and a unified administrative system."
Hmmmm....why does the phrase "centres of excellence" remind me so much of the phrase "support our troops"?
Mr man is, of course, well aware that "centres of excellence" was a nasty phrase used to hypnotise the public into letting Harney close down their local public hospitals that had been serving them for decades. Then funding became the reason why these "centres of excellence" never actually materialised and the remaining hospitals were lumped with lots of extra people to look after while those people now in many cases had to travel large distances in taxis while very ill to get to a now totally oversubscribed overcrowded public hospital that was certainly no longer a centre of excellence, even if it had previously been so in years gone by, making the idea of p[rivate health insurance go from being a luxury to a necessity for people who wished to live longer.
Pure capitalist privatisation strategy 101, plain and simple. Meanwhile creating an unaccountable HSE bought enough time to get the job done without having to deal with too many of those "awkward" questions.
that cartoon by eoin ryan above was priceless.
MR, You are either a fool or a PD/FF misinformation spreader. Judging by the nature of your previous posts, I think spreading poisonous and insidious misinformation and propaganda is more likely your game. Tell me, whats the money like? Thinking of taking it up as a profession myself. There seems to be plenty of money around for right wing neo-con spin.
In fact, only yesterday the paper was saying that one of the new hospitals MH had talked about building had already cost the taxpayer 29 million and yet not one single sod had been turned so far. Much of that money blown on PR and spin. Seems like lucrative work right now. Fuck the knowledge economy. No fear of that at this rate.Who knows, perhaps Instead Mary and her cronies can grow Ireland's brand worldwide as the spin economy. People could hire us out if they needed to contract out good lies and spin to cover up their dirty dealings worldwide. Plenty of experience in the field here I think.
"Log on and vote YES - poll is half way down on right hand side."
I did. unfortunately such online polls are easily stacked. All it takes is one FF lackey switching their router on and off and voting all day.
Thats probably what Frank Fahey did regarding his Galway bypass poll.
Funny how there is often an online democratic poll about things like this but never about whether we should issue blanket bank guarantees, costly road tolling contract repayment clauses or hospital closures. Those things happen behind closed doors.
Democracy is quite selective in Ireland. Consists mostly of voting in tweedledee or tweedledum every 4 years then listening to carefully screened calls on joe duffy
We need some other better options. Get out on the streets people!
I, for my many sins listened to Unk Joe today , an old very nice dear said to joe , whilst discussing
her lost xmas bonus & that cheese topic , ie , '' the government should be paid in cheese'' as she
was living on a half pound of sausages which feeds her for 2 days.....I think i heard the tissues
from the kleenex box being used by joe , not to smear the lovely old dear but to pretend he was
sort of sniffling , he makes me sick .
Now this is the same Unk Joe who tore the bejazus out of the lady from the Ballier by implementing
his ORR-T-EAHHH '' half a million euos per annum + his inquiring go-get-the-reds 'interviewing
thic neques' which , i hear was loudly applauded by ' She who must be obeyed' if you want yor own
x mas bonus joe , yes mammy , agh do .
My point being he must have read the huns or thous of txt msgs the day mary got christ-end for
her shovelling thic neques blaming everyone but builder mary on that fateful day which WILL GO
DOWN IN IRELANDS history as the day the red ink was mightier than the shovel , i know the ' type'
of txt msg i sent in and i will now have to revert to my other 02 number in future in order that i should
appease joe as i always have until i heard his captitalistic attitude towards the lady from the ballier
who poured red paint over that oul meatloaf mary harney and not thrown it as joe kept insisting she
did on the day she made history by standing up for many of us who hide behind txts instead of
going out of our way and standing our own ground
"Pure capitalist privatisation strategy 101, plain and simple. Meanwhile creating an unaccountable HSE bought enough time to get the job done without having to deal with too many of those "awkward" questions."
"Mr man is, of course, well aware that "centres of excellence" was a nasty phrase used to hypnotise the public into letting Harney close down their local public hospitals that had been serving them for decades. Then funding became the reason why these "centres of excellence" never actually materialised and the remaining hospitals were lumped with lots of extra people to look after while those people now in many cases had to travel large distances in taxis while very ill to get to a now totally oversubscribed overcrowded public hospital that was certainly no longer a centre of excellence, even if it had previously been so in years gone by, making the idea of p[rivate health insurance go from being a luxury to a necessity for people who wished to live longer."
Mary Harney is the Minister for Health & Children as well as being a former Tanaiste. She created the dysfunctional HSE, but she doesn't want to take responsibility for it.
HSE is out of control.
Or under the tight control of external corporate medical and insurance interests and the beneficiaries of Big Pharma Inc.? This is NOT accidental, it is corporate sabotage in the interests of the sacred 'invisible hand' and its velvet PR knuckleduster.
First requirement. All public representatives and public servants and their families to be entirely dependent on public health, education and transport.
Then the only ones chasing the seats would be the ones that wanted to sort the problems in the interests of the public, rather than the self-servers building their dynasties.
Regarding the 'hospital ages away'. Many of those dependent on public health dont have the hi-tech charriot to ferry them in comfort to the centre of excellence. Then with the emphasis on efficiency, short stay, and turn around they dump you out. A friend and neighbour of mine(deaf and dumb man) was released from Galway and killed trying to walk home to Clifden, AT FUCKING NIGHT.You may remember the case.
I myself, let a surgical procedure, recommended but not vital, go past because it was a drive through set-up I did not have the resources to meet. Another time I was released after a week in Merlin Park for a collapsed lung and pneumonia, and only friends insisted I stay with them instead of heading home I might not be here pumping this shit. Your paper sums are neat, but its turning a health service into a sickness industry.
Wrong approach.Reduces the patient to client/customer and throughput efficiency into the measure of effectiveness.
Opus, there is a lot in what you say. I do agree with you that HSE was meant to provide social medicine, but it is failing on purpose. They are failing because they want to end social medicine.
I've now had the chance to listen to the radio interview. I thought the crux of it was that Louise wants the people on the sreet and to stay on the street.
To commit to this, the people would risk being bashed in the dark. This could mean fractured skulls and permanent brain damage. Obviously, there is no health support.
The people would need a cataclysmic event to precipitate taking those risks, such as, more hospital closures, school closures, and social welfare becoming insolvent. This will happen when the IMF forces austerity measures on the Dail in exchange for their preserving a semblance of economic order.
The peope have enjoyed some peace since "the troubles."
Taoiseach Brian Cowen is threadbarely holding the appearance together, and even the appearance is threadbare. No-one seriously believes his spin of any recovery for this faltering economy.
Ireland could end up under martial law - NATO. Think of Yugoslavia and Croatia.
Might it not now occur to the Government, that it is better to throw one of their own, Minister Mary Harney, over the side to forestall - at least for a time - these new troubles.
'failing on purpose'
Thats what I meant by corporate sabotage.
It was ALWAYS the purpose and program of the PD privateers.
But they sold their program very effectively to a population conditioned by commercial media and by centuries of CHURCH domination of intellect with doctrines of faith(read CREDULITY) rather than scepticism, which is now altogether a no-no( as in Euro-sceptic etc.)to trust authority.i.e. we are educated to obey rather than DEMOCRATICALLY and critically question.
Thats why rational debate degenerates so readily into abuse from those whose faculties of thought have atrophied through generations of religious suppression. Compare the standards of debate in Westminster or Washington to the embarrassing shite and tripe flowing down the steps of Oireachtas reports.
To misquote Descarte:-
You think? Therefore you're a heretic.
the greedy little corporate private hospitals are nurtured through their growing pains suckling on the willing teat of the National Treatment Purchase Fund where millions upon millions are willingly spent.
http://www.kildarestreet.com/search/?s=national+treatme...+fund
while that money could have been spent on our public system. Instead it is left, underfunded, to atrophy further
Meanwhile private insurance companies are very slow to pay their bills to the public system for services rendered and little pressure is brought to bear on them to pay up. Cuts cuts cuts bit the private companies can pay their bills whenever they get around to it.
Opus said: " 'failing on purpose'
Thats what I meant by corporate sabotage. "
That's right on.
Mary Harney's momentary stress over the symbolic red paint pouring pales insignificantly when compared to the 24/7 stress of the working class and those people with mental illness who are still being unnecessarily locked up and warehoused in institutions.
it's a pity that the mental health service user, who rang the radio station to condemn Louise's symbolic pouring of red paint, isn't aware of Mary Harney's abrogation of her ministerial responsibilities to oversee the Mental Health Commission (MHC) and ensure that the MHC is_ _independent_ _and does its job to protect patients' rights.
Instead, MHC participated in a cover-up of HSE's medical misconduct in April this year. View related link below.
I find it nefarious that after being given absolute proof of medical misconduct, obtained under FOI, by the patient's family and the fact that HSE made misstatements of material fact to MHC's Inspector for Mental Health Services (an indictable offence under the Mental Health Act of 2001) - the Mental Health Commission refused to act to protect this patient's rights..
When provided with this ironclad proof, it was incumbent on MHC to act in the best interests of the patient, and not to cover-up HSE's indictable offence and medical misconduct.
MHC is supposed to be an independent statutory body under Harney's oversight. It's Harney's job to ensure that MHC is independent.
Related Link in Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/96368
MHC's cover-up:
“ Today, 13 April 2010, Director Mooney informed the family by facsimile that
“The present position is that your brother’s case has been reviewed on a number of occasions and no further action is deemed necessary at this time.” "
The Patient's family view:
"Despite the fact that the former CEO Brid Clarke has been replaced by a new CEO Hugh Kane, the Mental Health Commission continues its dysfunctional “light handed” approach and appears incapable of disciplining the mental health establishment, which under the new Mental Health Act is meant to be respecting patient’s human rights and medical rights since 2001. MHC’s failure to live up to its obligations worsens at a rate only exceeded by their unacceptable excuses as reported in their latest 2008 Annual Report (available for download on their website) claiming that they need further funding. In reality, it is not a lack of money, it is a lack of accountability by Minister Mary Harney TD, who has failed to rein in HSE and has let her oversight of the Mental Health Commission slacken.”
A late entry in the photoshop contest. This time with an xmas theme.
Harney Killed Santa
This has even hit the Drudge Report in US -
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40023282
There's a wee video in this URL - - 30,000 left Republic of Ireland in 2010, up 42 percent from 2009. Unemployment 14 percent - 16 year high.
Good article read, too --
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404...ories
----------
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/budget/news/ire....html
"Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said Ireland is in a "dismal" position and there is little chance that the Government’s measures to reduce the budget and bail out banks will be a success.
“The austerity measures are weakening the economy, their approach to bank resolution is disappointing,” Stiglitz, a Columbia University economics professor, said in an interview in Hong Kong today. “The prospect of success is very, very bleak” for the government’s plan to resolve the problem, he said.
Irish bonds have plunged in the past month on investor concern the Government will have to turn to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for aid."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1112/1....html
..so if its not past the post by date, can I submit a caption for Heil Mary Horny's photo?
' Look, Mammy, I made a bloody great killing on the market. Who's a big girl,then'.
They are saying the Irish government is a third world government.
They are expecting imminent EU or IMF assistance as early as this weekend.
They are speculating that after Ireland goes bankrupt, Portugal will lose their pretence and then Spain.
-------
Hey, this means their credit rating is in the toilet, they won't be able to pull in any foreign investment to climb out of the hole or even be eligible for a bail-out (they are just not good for it).
Louise Minihan -
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/councillor-char....html
"Gardai confirmed yesterday that she was formally charged with assault on Ms Harney, criminal damage and a breach of the peace."
In the stages of grief overt the mismanagement of FF, I wonder where the Irish people are at when they think of the heartlessness of "Bloody" Mary . People have died (e.g. cancer misdiagnoses) so Harney could destroy social medicine with her bloody scythe.
Social medicine must now be given top priority with any new administration.
Cr Louise Minihan took a stance at the right time and place in history.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1123/1....html
in this one is that heil Mary is the last of the PD hot-gospellers who drove the last two decades of deregulation-uber-alles ideology that has us up the IMF/ECB ambush creek.
Not that the ideology remained confined to their junta, any more than the neo-con scam over the pond remained confined to the Bush-babies clique, but they were always the cadre of operators from day one that were determined to dose us with the Thatcher/Regan asocial monetarisation of everything they could stake a claim to. Including our health.
Maybe we need to convene citizens(elected) courts and deliver a few verdicts from the trolly in the corridor.
"Bloody" Mary has not shown any accountability and has destroyed people's lives.
Cancer patients have had to go to Northern Ireland and lie about where they live to get life saving treatment.
"Within three weeks of attending a GP in Strabane, Co Tyrone last year, Ms McCafferty was told that an aggressive form of breast cancer had spread to her lymph nodes."
*Eight months* after she had undergone a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment in Derry and Belfast, she received a letter for an appointment for a mammogram at Letterkenny General Hospital.
She came forward to counter the spin - September 2008 - that cases like hers were isolated:
Related Link dated 27 September 2008: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/why-i-was-force....html
On 24 November 2010 , "Bloody" Mary states -
http://www.imt.ie/news/2010/11/dail-report-7.html
"The median wait-time for an elective procedure is now 2.6 months, compared to 3.5 months in 2007, according to Minister for Health Mary Harney. “For 19 of the 20 most common adult surgical operations, patients are treated within two to five months,” she told the Dáil recently. “Children also receive treatment for the 10 most common surgical procedures within two to five months.”"
HSE - "Bloody" Mary's brainchild was officially established 1 January 2005.
HSE in the illusory boom times was failing in providing social medicine.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/family-d....html
"By Louise Hogan
Saturday November 27 2010
"Snip"
"Professor David Bouchier-Hayes, a now retired professor emeritus at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, said if the patient continued to have symptoms, such as pain and vomiting, then it was obvious that conservative management had failed.
By the time the decision to proceed with surgery was taken this patient was mortally ill and unlikely to be salvaged by any intervention, Prof Bouchier-Hayes said.
Ms Donohoe said her mother had been "left for five days with her condition worsening". A point highlighted frequently by the family was that she had not had a CT scan carried out of her abdomen or surgery ordered until the day of her death."
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict what the future holds in terms of patient care:
http://www.independent.ie/business/welcome-to-the-new-o....html
"Health
Taking €1.4bn and 6,000 staff out of the health sector -- even if they are pencil-pushers rather than frontliners -- is taking a risk with the provision of patient services.
Hospital ward closures and bed reductions are also planned, as there's a push to divert patients towards cheaper day-care and outpatient services to save on bed costs.
The slashing of healthcare budgets is likely to see a dampening of our life expectancy rates. Health insurance subscription charges could rise, as private bed costs in public hospitals are to be hiked.
Medicines will get more pricey as the drug-payment scheme is being restricted."
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/98259
"Make no mistake, the next move will be to try and sell off what remains of our state assets as suggested by the foot soldiers of big capital. The health budget will be severly cut, but more private hospitals will be built, but if you don't have the money it will be a case of 'please drop dead' from the capitalists. They don't care. For them, education must and will be cut too. Educated people are a threat to reining in the super wealthy and they may even try to estasblish something as subversive as democracy."
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