Union silence on health cuts

WHERE are the bus drivers’ unions? Where are the health service unions? Are they all in the pockets of Fianna Fáil and its cohorts, in well-paid and secure jobs in management?

I do not wish to paint all trade union leaders in a bad light – most are genuine and sincere – but in this instance there appears to be a conspicuous silence, to say the least.

I am appalled at the suggested cuts in frontline health services. I spent many years in health management posts in Britain, and never have I witnessed such draconian and dangerous measures as those being implemented in Ireland.

Where is the joined-up thinking in the Government?

If you take away nurses from already understaffed areas, then more mistakes will be made. People will die earlier than they should, deformatories will occur when trauma is not treated quickly and more suicides will occur if psychiatric services are culled. The savings which the Government thinks it can make by cutting frontline services in any public domain will be wiped out by endless claims for compensation. My humble advice to anyone suffering as a direct result of cuts leading to negligence, particularly in the health service, is to sue the finance minister who has taken it upon himself to approve any replacements of health service staff.

There will be many aspiring lawyers out of a job soon when the Government goes to the wall and they will be only too anxious to take cases on a “no win, no fee” basis. Fine Gael and/or Labour, with other opposition parties and independents, ought to be preparing to form a government-in-waiting now.

Cracks are opening up in Government ranks and they will get much wider after the upcoming local elections and Lisbon Treaty referendum.

John Emmett O’Sullivan

Glen Road

Monkstown

Co Cork