Health crisis - Politicians face election grilling

PREDICTABLY, health was top of the political agenda yesterday with the parties keenly aware they face a grilling on the doorstep in the general election campaign next spring.

As Fianna Fáil wound up its annual think-in at Westport, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern admitted he was appalled last year to hear that while the Government was spending almost €13 billion on health “people couldn’t get a blanket or were sleeping on trolleys”.

Mr Ahern also knows this scenario persists in overcrowded hospitals up and down the country despite his claim that rather than being appalled like everyone else “I had to get out and do something about it”.