Doctor rejects attack by Greens

I WISH to respond to Deputy John Gormley (Irish Examiner letters, February 14) who launched an extraordinary and bitter personal attack on me in response to my letter revealing the Green Party’s apparent hostility towards vaccinations (Irish Examiner letters, February 8).

Mr Gormley would appear to call into question my personal and professional integrity when he states that my letter was not motivated by “concern for children”, but rather by the fact that I once stood for election for the PDs.

I think this slur on my professional character speaks volumes about both Mr Gormley and his party.

I have spent the last six-and-half years working as a doctor and I have never — nor would I ever — put any party political interest ahead of the welfare of Irish children.

Unlike some of Mr Gormley’s political colleagues, I do not believe Irish children should be exposed to preventable and potentially life-threatening infectious diseases.

That was my principal reason for raising this issue. Having finished attacking me personally, Mr Gormley then attempts to deny the Green party was ever opposed to vaccinations.

Perhaps he can explain why, until the day my letter was published in two national newspapers, there was a statement on the Green party website informing voters there were “serious question marks about the benefit of mass vaccination programmes”?

Furthermore, the party promised there would be a “major review” of vaccination if they were returned to office.

Now that these statements have both apparently been removed from the party website, are we to take it they are no longer Green party policy?

Why does Mr Gormley refuse to acknowledge this as fact?

Green party representative Patricia McKenna recently debated this issue on RTÉ’s Seoige and O’Shea show where she clearly stated she had refused to have her own children vaccinated.

In keeping with the (now deleted) statement on her party website, Ms McKenna called into question the benefits of mass vaccination programmes.

In particular, she expressed dismay that Irish children might be vaccinated against the virus causing chickenpox.

It is clear Mr Gormley is embarrassed by what my letter revealed.

In response he has resorted to outright denial and a cowardly attack on my professional integrity. Readers may draw their own conclusions.

Dr Ruairí Hanley

2 Siena

Francis Street

Drogheda

Co Louth