A little communications planning might have averted political disaster

IT’S not just the contents of the budget that have landed the Government in the mire. It’s lack of communications planning.

The first principal of good communications is to start with the audience — with the people who will be affected by a communication. In the case of the medical cards withdrawal, the primary audience was the over-70s, the secondary audience was Fianna Fáil backbenchers and the tertiary audience was media.

The medical card issue was one of those you file under “Bleedin’ Obvious”. It was bleedin’ obvious that every family in this country has a parent in their 70s, 80s or 90s who is kept alive and functioning through a daily cocktail of expensive drugs, and who, thanks to Fianna Fáil’s gift of the medical card, abandoned the VHI and now faces at least €5,000 in extra medical costs.