We've known for ages that the A&E crisis was a national emergency
It is the first time in the history of this present coalition, or the one before it, that a national emergency has been declared.
When Ms Harney insisted on taking over the health portfolio - or rather, fiasco - in the Cabinet mini-reshuffle just over 18 months ago, she believed she had a crisis on her hands.
Less than a year ago, at the Progressive Democrats' annual conference, she declared: "We ended the dole queues. We're going to end the trolley queues as well. I will not be found wanting."
She also had a 10-point plan she promised was like a magic wand - at least, she made it sound like that - which would make the problem disappear: trolleys would become part of A&E folklore.
Amazingly, the problem didn't disappear, and nor did the trolleys become part of A&E folklore.
What our Health Minister forgot was that people get sick and need hospital beds. When they don't get them, they end up on trolleys.
This became, what our Health Minister now knows and everybody knew 18 months ago, a national emergency.
For once, people can believe a politician. More than that, Ms Harney has admitted that Government policy has failed. Note, though, it's now not just her policy, but Government policy.
Ms Harney's admission about the national emergency came on the day the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) said there were 384 patients on trolleys in hospitals countrywide.
I notice that the Health Service Executive (HSE) didn't contradict the INO on this occasion.
A national emergency demands targets and Ms Harney said hospitals were being given targets for improvement, so everyone could measure progress. In rugby terms, this would be called passing the ball out to the wing.
Having now been given targets, albeit within the context of an abysmally failed Government policy, it will be the hospitals' fault in future if they fail to meet them.
The minister made these declarations after the inaugural meeting of the HSE's A&E task force in Dublin earlier this week.
"These targets will be a minimum. They are to be breached, not just reached," she said, like someone launching a jingle for a new brand of washing powder.
She went on to say that bed capacity, including closed beds in the public system, must be used.
"The bottom line is that no-one, particularly no older person, should sleep overnight on a trolley in a corridor," said Ms Harney.
What did she mean by "overnight"? Some people have been on trolleys for so long that they must feel like they've been on a non-stop long-haul flight, both ways.
During subsequent questions in the Dáil to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said Government initiatives aimed at solving the overcrowding issue were not working, after nine years of Fianna Fáil/PDs control.
"Isn't that why your Government has declared a national emergency?" asked Mr Rabbitte, dogged as ever.
Mr Ahern gave a remarkable response, which included the statutory remark about winning political points. "The only fear that you have is that we might resolve this issue and we'll continue to do that," said the Taoiseach.
Mr Rabbitte need have absolutely no need to fear on that score, if indeed it should be described as a fear.
Maybe Mr Ahern should be in a home for the bewildered - the very bewildered - because he must have been delusional when he said that the Government might resolve the A&E chaos. In fairness though, Ms Harney has successfully made it into a national emergency and, short of shutting down the A&E units in every hospital, she really can't top that achievement.
THE national emergency will not be resolved before the next general election - which is not due until some time next year - nor the one after it. If Bertie Ahern thinks it is a matter of some insignificance, such as scoring political points, then he is out of his tree.
Just how delusional the Taoiseach is, is illustrated by the fact that, in response to Mr Rabbitte, he went on to outline Ireland's "very good" and "internationally recognised" health service. Rather like JP McManus saying a horse is great, pity it has only three legs.
Mary Harney was naive enough to think she could resolve the debacle by merely producing a 10-point plan 18 months ago, but she now knows better.
If Ireland were a third world country, it would be looking for world aid. But it is not. We are the wealthiest in the EU, as Bertie Ahern is quite happy to tell us, again and again.
Ironically, the Government is giving advice to the rest of the world - this week it was urging the new Israeli government to engage in negotiations with Palestinian leaders.
And let's not forget the other national disaster which made the headlines this week: the appointment of Gay Byrne as the new chairman of the Road Safety Authority. Not that I'm suggesting Gaybo is a disaster - he's just agreed to preside over one.
On the day he was wheeled out by Transport Minister Martin Cullen, Mr Byrne admitted he had no expertise in the area.
He said he had a track record in management and that he wanted to make a prominent contribution in return for his "charmed existence" in broadcasting over five decades.
It's not exactly an appropriate way to mark 50 years of being a broadcaster and I don't know how that, or a track record in management, is going to stop the carnage on our roads.
The appointment of the 72-year-old broadcasting legend appears to be just another gesture by the Government.
Mr Byrne's predecessor, Eddie Shaw, resigned because he knew the Government had no intention of implementing its own road safety policy - which, he claimed, could save 140 lives every year if the Government simply enforced the policy alone.
The most Mr Byrne offered on his appointment was a macho guarantee that if he found he was up against a stone wall, civil service bureaucracy or a lack of cooperation from the Government, or if they lied to him, he would walk away from the job and explain his reasons for doing so.
Been there, done that, as Eddie Shaw might say.
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