White smoke from the Vatican and Croker - but Cork is black as ever

IT’S hard to know which conclave was more important - the one in Rome which only had to decide a new Pope, or the one in Dublin to decide whether or not to open the most sacred temple in Ireland to the unconverted.

It would have been appropriate had the decision to amend Rule 42 been announced by black smoke because for some in the venerable GAA, the opening of Croke Park to foreign games was a bad day for the association.

For the Cork County GAA Board, the last bastion of the faith that is the national game, our heritage, our culture, and everything else, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Twice.

Not only did the Sligo amendment to Rule 42 get passed - despite the best efforts at board level to block it - but their presidential aspirations lost out to the great traditional rival, Kilkenny.

Many believe that one was consequent upon the other, but they would rather not believe that ‘down the Park’.

Yet, it’s little consolation to the democrats of the Cork county board that Croke Park may never see the bounce of a soccer or rugby ball. The fact is that the majority of the GAA capitulated while Cork stubbornly maintained its “no surrender” mentality.

Although it is now the will of the majority to rent out the stadium, there is the hurdle of the GAA central council to overcome if the soccer and rugby lads ever decide they actually want to use it.

Sean Kelly, the current GAA president, showed courage and integrity in mooting the change. But despite his assurances that they don’t intend to ‘screw’ anyone, the message is that it won’t come cheap. Already, the figure of €2 million has been mentioned for the use of the hall.

Like the new Pope, some people are concerned that while things have changed, they might not have changed that much. Pope John Paul II’s successor might have, with hindsight, been referring to the momentous outcome of the other ballot in Dublin and its narrow majority when, in his first message, he said: “Confounding all my expectations, divine providence through the votes of the venerable father cardinals...”

And Pope Benedict XVI must have heard the news from Dublin when he said, “I will spare no efforts and dedication to continue the promising dialogue with different civilisations,” which was obviously a veiled reference to the FAI and the IRFU.

The smoke may have cleared over Vatican City, but there’s still plenty of hot air to obfuscate Rule 42.

But then, more important than the papacy is the GAA. Or is that the Cork county board?

Whether it is or not, one thing’s for sure: a woman will be Pope before our health service is straightened out.

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said on Wednesday she welcomed the report from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) into the country’s A&E departments. She must be one of the very few who did so because it paints a frightening picture of them.

Since March, the HSA inspected 11 A&E units and, apart from the appalling trolley situation, it refers to chairs and medical equipment stored in fire-protected corridors.

Incredibly, eight of the hospitals have been reported to fire officers because exit doors and corridors were found to be obstructed.

It also said that overcrowding leads to an increased risk of injury, infection and violence from frustrated patients.

In a health service costing €11 billion this year, it is criminal that patients and medical staff have to put up with these conditions in one of the richest countries in Europe.

It illustrates how far out of touch Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was when he told the Dáil the Government was confident that measures now under way would alleviate many of the problems in the A&Es.

I doubt very much if the 316 patients languishing on trolleys throughout the country, or their families, would share his confidence.

The Irish Nurses’ Organisation certainly does not, and its members are in a position to know because they have to deal with the chronic conditions every day of the week. St Bricin’s military hospital in Dublin has been ruled out of bounds as not being suitable for public patients without significant investment.

THIS has 100 idle beds, which means that even the army won’t use it. I suppose it’s bad enough being deaf without running further risks to their health.

Mary Harney had demanded the Health portfolio - and she got it. She probably wishes now that she didn’t, but she can’t turn the clock back, no more than her 10-point plan is going to solve the crisis in A&E departments.

Groups representing patients countrywide, naturally enough, were outraged by the HSA report and they have described its findings as serious and unacceptable. Why wouldn’t they, because it says quite unequivocally that some of the A&E departments are veritable health hazards. Now, in welcoming the report, our health minister displayed tremendous leadership qualities: she immediately put the responsibility on hospital staff and management and insisted it was their job to improve the situation.

Likewise, no doubt all those dilapidated schools around the country should be repaired by the teachers and parents who must be responsible for allowing vulnerable young children attend them.

The Taoiseach’s colleague, Ivor Callely, who is a former minister of state for health, told an Oireachtas Health Committee this week he had informed the Taoiseach as far back as December 2003 about the over-charging scandal in nursing homes.

Ivor should know, because he had responsibility for older people at the time, and he could remember telling Bertie Ahern just days after a critical management advisory committee meeting relating to charges in Dublin.

This, you will recall, was a scandal which went on for 29 years, affected over 300,000 patients and their families, and the possible cost to taxpayers has been reckoned at a figure up to €2 billion.

The reaction, generally, was extraordinary. Tim O’Malley, who is a junior minister with responsibility for disabilities and mental health issues, told the Oireachtas committee he recognised the gravity of the matter when he read a briefing note prior to the management advisory committee meeting.

There it was decided formally to seek legal advice from the attorney general after which, Tim O’Malley said, it outside their responsibility as junior ministers.

“The ministers weren’t jumping up and down and asking why the attorney general’s legal advice hadn’t come in,” he told the Oireachtas committee.

It took a long time after that for anybody to jump up and down. Almost 12 months and a cabinet reshuffle, in fact.