Addressing the abortion issue

From the Medical Independent on 17 December 2015

This Government came to power with no intention of legislating on abortion. Its 2011 Programme for Government health section made five commitments under ‘bioethics’. Four of these five commitments promised legislation. On abortion, it carefully avoided any intent on enacting legislation. Irish politicians know the divisiveness of political debates on what are perceived as moral matters.

This Government has reneged on its pledge to sort out hospitals

Opinion from the Irish Independent on 30 November 2015

Enda Kenny ran for election in 2007 pledging to “end the scandal of patients on trolleys”. By 2011, he was even more ambitious, promising that “the two-tier system of unequal access to hospital care will end”.

Government’s health insurance model is a textbook case of flawed policy making

Analysis in the Irish Independent on 18 November 2015

This Government promised universal healthcare its 2011 Programme for Government. It said everybody would have free GP care by 2016, and compulsory universal health insurance would start in 2016 and be completed by 2019.

Hard choices to be made in the political parlour

Column from Irish Independent on 8 July 2015.

Game on for Budget 2016, with the impending general election in sight. Last Friday, Tánaiste Joan Burton warned interest groups at the Social Protection forum in Dublin Castle that “the Budget isn’t a parlour game in which everybody puts out what they would like”.

Kenny’s promises on mental health were pure guff

Analysis from Irish Independent on 5 June 2015.

Mental health “is so central and so sensitive to our communities that it deserves the very best from the Government and that it shall have”. These were the words of An Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the opening of a Console counselling service in Mayo in 2012.

Taoiseach, make this the best little country in the world for people with disabilities

My take on the abuse in Aras Attracta as detailed by the RTE Investigations Unit in Irish Independent on 11 December 2014.

The HSE reacted promptly and with apparent gravity to the abuse in Aras Attracta, exposed by RTE’s ‘Prime Time’ programme, once it was made aware of it.

Radio bluff exposes how little Enda knows about health

Opinion from the Irish Independent on 13 September 2014

Enda Kenny gets most of the sound bites right when it comes to government health policy. He repeatedly mentioned “keeping patients at the centre” and the “need to reform” in his interview with Cathal MacCoille on yesterday’s ‘Morning Ireland’.

But the minute the Taoiseach is probed in any detail on health matters, he flounders and his utter lack of understanding is revealed.

Kenny should recognise health service failings are ultimately his responsibility

Opinion in Irish Independent on 11 September 2014

Enda Kenny’s remark that he was not interested in endless volumes of explanations on why things can’t get done is fair comment for the leader of government.

One could reasonably expect, three and half years into office, that good progress would have been made on many of the 87 health commitments made in his own Programme for Government.

What Enda Kenny needs from the next health minister

See here my analysis from the Irish Independent on 9 July 2014 – Who ever gets Health portfolio must hit the ground running

Why who is the next health minister actually matters

See below analysis on cabinet reshuffle from Irish Independent on 4 July 2014 – New minister must realise health service can’t take more cuts.