More betrayal for women whose lives have been ripped apart

SADLY, seven women in the midlands have far more important things to worry about today than the Taoiseach’s shockingly graceless Dáil defence of his Government’s cancer care record.

The Portlaoise Hospital patients now engulfed in anguish as the aftermath of botched test results sears through their lives and families will care little for the proceedings in the Oireachtas as they summon the resolve necessary to battle a disease they believed they had been spared.

However, once the horror at their misdiagnosis begins to pass they may find time to get angry about Bertie Ahern’s terse outburst in the chamber.

Distilled down, his message was as blunt as it was appalling: “Don’t blame me for the health service — I’m just in office, I’m not in charge.”

If victims wanted an apology or even some basic sympathy they would have found scant comfort in the Taoiseach’s words as he personally redefined the term compassion fatigue.

After Professor Drumm’s perverse attempt to blame those who marched against hospital closures for the current crisis, Mr Ahern rallied against the swathe of cancer specialists who have strongly criticised the Government’s stance since the Portlaoise scandal broke.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore quoted the expert statements back at the Taoiseach to a rising tide of sneers from the Government benches where some FF TDs had clearly failed to grasp how directly this story impacts on virtually every family in the country and no amount of repetition of statistics and boasts about funding will calm people.

“The deputy is very deferential to the professions,” Conor Lenihan hissed at Mr Gilmore before gleefully looking up to the press gallery for approval like a snide schoolboy.

Mr Ahern was ill-advised to continue with this doctor-bashing routine, especially with the comment: “The vast majority earn far in excess of what I do in terms of salary,” which was as jaw-dropping as it was unprovoked.

Someone should have had a word with the Taoiseach that this of all times, was probably not the most sensitive to try and garner public support for his €310,000 pay deal. Stung by opposition attacks, Mr Ahern was now lost in an angry rant, insisting he could not be held responsible for everyone of the HSE’s 120,000 employees. Fair enough, but he was also essentially ducking any responsibility for the health service at all — fuelling the long-held suspicion the HSE is more about creating a kind of inhuman shield for ministers to hide behind than providing the world-class health care we are told is just within our grasp as a nation.

The Taoiseach was clearly on the ropes, but refusing to admit defeat, even when Gilmore landed another punch over the Portlaoise equipment in question being 15 years old. How blackly ironic the time frame exactly mirrors Ireland’s transformation from Western Europe’s poor cousin to its self-satisfied rich little brat.

Mr Ahern was particularly dexterous in his attempt to slide out of that one, saying: “The normal period for a mammography machine will be in excess of 11 years.” So it was no more than four years out of date then?

The Taoiseach was equally slippery over who was to blame for Portlaoise. Insisting he could not pre-empt the inquiry, before eagerly pre-empting the inquiry by making it crystal clear he expected human error to be found guilty, thus letting the Government — sorry the wholly separate HSE — off the hook.

A bad day for the Taoiseach. But just another day of betrayal for the women whose lives have been ripped apart by this lethal culture of indifference.