That’s another unhealthy mess we’ve gotten ourselves into

THE beauty about the radical plans for the health service announced this week is, from the Government’s point of view, the fact that they could take anything from three to 10 years to implement.

At that stage, the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats conglomeration could be a long forgotten nightmare and Bertie Ahern safely ensconced as president of Europe.

One thing is for sure, though, whatever tweaking of the currently unmanageable health service is carried out under the McCreevy-Martin grand design, it won’t make one bit of difference to the hospital waiting lists.