‘I blame cuts for loss of follow-up chemotherapy’
He blames cutbacks.
Yves Chavanne said the funds that went to a special adviser’s salary could have instead gone to cancer services.
Mr Chavanne, 61, says doctors told him in late 2009 that he had cancer of the digestive tract and that he only had weeks to live.
“I was told there was nothing that could be done, I was lucky if I would survive because the tumour was so big it would burst the aorta.”
Having defied doctors’ predictions, the Fás worker went on to recover enough strength to allow surgeons try and remove the 17cm tumour in his oesophagus.
“After the first chemo I was going around going ‘ah jasus, I don’t understand all this talk about chemo’. The second chemo I started to get fatigue, the third one I lost my hair and was getting ulcers in my mouth. After three months they did a new scan and the tumour had shrunk enough [to operate on].”
Mr Chavanne survived the eight-hour surgical procedure in March 2010. “The professor asked me to get one last chemo just in case there was any rogue cells left behind. He took off as much as he could of it on both sides [of the throat],” he said.
The courageous man, who now can barely speak and at times struggles to breathe, claims cutbacks forced doctors to prioritise treatment.
“The budget was spent. I never got follow-up chemotherapy after the operation, even though I agreed to it. I was meant to get four MRI scans a year too and didn’t and when I finally had one a year later, they discovered another tumour.”
That was the middle of last year. He says he believes he would “not have relapsed” if he had received the chemotherapy session in mid 2010, soon after the operation.
“These people [staff] are so overworked. I don’t know what happened. But I never got it. And after one year I got a scan. They found a tumour the size of my fist.
“And since then they have tried so many chemos. At the end the chemo took so much toll on my physical being that I collapsed.
“I was rushed to hospital on Dec 18. Then they could not even get a vein to get the chemo in. Never again, they tried 11 times and the 12th in my foot. They stopped everything.”
Mr Chavanne sent an email to Mr Kenny on Dec 7 — in between his chemotherapy treatments — about the Taoiseach’s intervention in the salary of a special adviser, Ciaran Conlon.
Mr Kenny requested that the €127,000 salary, topped up by €35,000, be sanctioned, despite objections from Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister.
The amount breached a pay cap imposed on adviser pay.
Mr Conlon sought the extra amount as an adviser for Richard Bruton, the jobs minister, after working as Mr Kenny’s right-hand man the previous year during the lead-up to the general election.
Mr Chavanne, who worked with Fás for 20 years before becoming sick, and has lived in Ireland for 35 years, explained why he wrote Mr Kenny: “I was hoping to change their mind. To say [to them] ‘can’t you realise or are you that blind or that greedy’.
“How did they have the gall [to do this]. I saw the story and decided that if enough people write in and emailed, there might be a conscience in the Government.
“Give it [the money] to the oncology department. Or even to keep a remedial teacher, to keep a bed open in a hospital so somebody doesn’t have to wait on a trolley.”
Mr Chavanne has been in St Francis Hospice, Raheny, since mid-January.
“They [doctors] were trying to make my last moments as painless as possible,” he adds.
But the brave man is determined to fight on.
“Instead of treating the cancer as an enemy, I treat it as an opportunity, a learning lesson. And a test but I’m thinking when will this be bloody over.”
* Under Freedom of Information, Political Reporter Juno McEnroe sifted through some of the 80 letters and emails sent by angry families and individuals to Enda Kenny over his pay hike for an adviser. Most of the correspondence was sent to Mr Kenny in the hours and days after his state of the nation speech just prior to the budget.
* What you did say was ‘Ciaran, here is a pay rise of €35,000, the country can’t afford it but your my buddy [sic] so I will break my own rules and fix it for you’. It sure pays to have a friend like you.
I am a father-of-four. I am unable to work as I have Parkinson’s disease. We have two sons who have autism and require services that we pay for out of our monthly children’s allowance.
My 10-year-old son needs a special needs assistant in class but your government is denying him this.
An SNA for Oisín would cost less €35,000 a year and would be better value for money.
We have had to cut back on some of the services we obtain for our children because of the cuts to the children’s allowance last year and we are pretty sure we are going to have to cut back even more following the budget.
We drive our son 15 miles to school because it has the only ASD unit in the area and your government is cutting the travel grant that is paid to cover the cost of this travel. I could go on but I am pretty sure you don’t care a damn so what’s the point.
Joseph Rossa
— who has Parkinson’s disease.
It has cost you respect and votes
I would say you should be ashamed of yourself but you obviously couldn’t care less. That €30,000 [sic] has cost you a lot of respect and a lot of votes for the future.
Paul Butler
So it is the old routine of ‘jobs for the boys’.
This is corruption and incompetence all rolled into one. And you dare to lecture the nation on the need for austerity!
You are a hypocrite and a disgrace to the Irish nation.
Phelim Murnion
To paraphrase George Orwell, while all animals are equal there are always greedy little piggies who think they are more equal than others.
Maurice Curtin
— Cork Fine Gael member
I find it absolutely revolting and disgusting…
Does the Taoiseach not realise that this salary increase is more than what a lot of taxpayers earn in a year?
Maurice Dee
— who described himself as a sickened and disgusted taxpayer
I cannot sit and watch one rule for us… and one for those who are deemed so important that all they are entitled to is an increase that could employ a nurse, teacher or garda.
Deborah Dunne
— Public sector worker
I think you have some nerve coming on TV and saying that we must bear the burden created by your predecessors when you have overruled two of your ministers and increased the salary of one of your cronies by €35,000.
Marie Murphy
— Local authority tenant
For the last three weeks I have been laying awake at night worrying about the budget and what you are going to say in your address to the nation; any additional costs/taxes or cuts to my social welfare and my next step is to go to the local animal feeds shop, buy a bag of rolled oats €13.20 for a 25kg bag and mix that with water into a porridge to eat. I cannot afford any heating fuel this year, so hoping that it will be a mild winter.
And you tell me that it’s OK that Ciaran Conlon can have an increase of €35k, I presume he gets travel and expenses as well? Perhaps he could pick me up next time I go to the local village to look for work.
Sue Anthony, 53
— unemployed woman
As I write, you are on the telly, telling us about the hardship we are facing. I think you shouldn’t have the flag beside you, because to my mind, you have betrayed it, because you have betrayed the people. He’s [Mr Conlon] an expensive pal — not just in terms of the outrageous salary but in terms of the votes you will loose as a result.
Lucy McCrohan
— an 88-year-old relative of a former Fine Gael Dáil candidate
Where is the €30,000 bonus coming from to pay him? Your actions in issuing any bonus payments, to anyone, are irresponsible, not good enough and disappointing. Your justification of it crosses into disgustingly disrespectful behaviour. Your reputation is on the line Mr Kenny. Stop it.
Pamella Patchell
Today and tomorrow we will find out just how much we have to pay for the greed and stupidity of others. That will be very painful for most of us but not for a government adviser with an extra €35k in his back pocket.
Seamus Condon
Mr Kenny, how could you come on national television to tell the people of this country about cuts, austerity, and any other words you would like to use to describe the budget after giving your mate a €35k pay rise? It is just despicable.
John Kelly
On the morning that the nation is bracing itself for the Taoiseach’s address to the nation, and on the eve of two budget days that quite frankly has ordinary people scared shitless… It is a new low in political cute-hoorism.
Leigh Blackmore
Have you just signed off on a raise of a €35,000 to one of your cronies???... while you pile more hardship on us, the small people, you give your friend a rise of 35,000.
Aideen McGarrigle
— an angry teacher
I found it very hard to watch you preach from behind your desk knowing that you see one rule for the ordinary, hard-working people of this country and another for you and your circle of friends.
Pat Nolan
— a Fine Gael voter
He’s not from the private sector, he’s one of us, a party hack and buddy of yours to boot! Stick to the pay cap! Tis more than he’s worth. His raise is equivalent to my salary before taxes and PRSI. Have some sense Enda, we didn’t vote for you to watch you become Charlie Haughey-light!
Pat Cassidy
— a Fine Gael voter
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