Legislation — as promised — is the only way for open disclosure

Legal change wouldn’t ever have come in time for Vicky Phelan, but its implementation, when promised, may have influenced the handling of her case, writes Gerard Howlin

BRIAN Cowen called the Department of Health “Angola” not because of landmines underfoot, but because the health system is run by warlords.

Nineteen years after he left Hawkins House they still do. Many of them seek a specific good as they see it. But none are prepared to subject their sectoral interest to a greater good as set out for them politically. There is ingrained contempt for, and attrition with, anything resembling management. Management is itself a silo, motivated mainly by self-protection. Politicians are passing trade, useful to suck up to for resources, but pointless as policymakers because they utterly lack effective powers of compunction.