You want a first-class health system? Fine, but it’ll take a dictatorship

No matter how well planned it is, no matter what vested interests are tackled, healthcare is like a virus which constantly morphs into a form resistant to the most recent prescription.

Coming up to the election, the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan invited members of the press to the Irish premiere of Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It was a clever PR move, designed to raise awareness of the real and present threat of extinction implicit in climate change.

If she had the time, Mary Harney should do the same thing with Sicko, the latest offering from American film-maker Michael Moore, famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) for Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. It garnered huge attention when it got its world premiere last week at the Cannes Film Festival. If the PDs moved quickly, they could host its Irish premiere before the election, with the Minister for Health giving the briefest of introductions.