Give Harney an even break

I THINK I’ve seen it all now. How quickly we forget.

I opened the Irish Examiner (November 27) to be greeted with an image of Mary Harney and a query over a bill costing taxpayers €410 when she had a wash and blow-dry prior to a political engagement where she represented the Irish people.

It seems other people, possibly wives of Fás delegates, also had a share of this bill, although who exactly they were representing on behalf of the Irish people remains unclear.

When it became public that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was spending thousands of taxpayers’ money on makeup while he was Taoiseach, it did make the news.

However, I don’t recall front page close-up photos of the Taoiseach or queries by your political reporters as to whether this would now end his career.

However, media coverage now seems to suggest that it could be the unravelling of Ms Harney’s career.

I am tired of the lambasting Mary Harney receives in the media every day. When I graduated from college I spent three years working with the HSE in Limerick.

I saw the HSE at its best and worst. I saw nurses, doctors, care workers and social workers struggling with case loads and growing populations. I saw them coming in early and leaving late to get through their workloads.

I saw the genuine thanks they received from people using the services of the HSE. I saw their genuine upset when dealing with difficult cases, for example, anorexia where the facilities to treat this disease are just not available to meet the demands in Ireland.

I’m not naive. I also saw the bureaucracy. I saw people struggling to get funding allocated to genuine causes. I saw initiatives in the pipeline that had yet to be implemented.

I saw the pen-pushers and the petty political games and these are the obstacles that face Mary Harney day in, day out.

When people blame her for the state of the health system I shudder at their logic.

She is one woman and cannot be blamed for a system that has been left to get to this state over the years.

She needs time to work through the reforms. It’s a mammoth task.

I want to see some balance in the way Ms Harney is portrayed in the media. I want to see some of the good news stories because they are out there.

I don’t care that she had a wash and blow-dry prior to a political engagement. At least she didn’t spend an estimated €100,000 on makeup, as Bertie Ahern is reported to have done.

Doreen O’Mahony

Heathorton

Greenhills Estate

South Douglas Road

Cork