Medical cards debacle - Behan has spoken for the majority

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen, already facing challenges his recent predecessors only read about in history books, needs a Fianna Fáil revolt like a hole in the head.

However, he should not be surprised that he is facing one. Did he and his inner circle imagine that the proposal to means test medical cards for people over 70s would be accepted without a murmur? Or is it that he did not work through the implications? Or, maybe, he trusted too readily in his Health Minister Mary Harney’s judgment and instincts. Maybe he over-estimated his Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s ability to suppress and silence the justified anger at this week’s Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting.

Or maybe, as so many critics of the measure inside and outside of Fianna Fáil have said, he and his cabinet are dangerously out of touch with the real world and the concerns so many people feel about how the economic crisis will affect their lives.