Psychiatric chaos - We’ve got our priorities all wrong

IN the space of 24 hours we have been told that the State’s attempt to rescue Anglo Irish Bank’s bondholders will cost at least €24,000,000,000 – €24 billion may be easier to read but it remains equally incomprehensible – and that gardaí in riot gear have been used to restore order on psychiatric wards because there are no longer enough nurses to meet the needs of the day.

Is there a more vivid illustration of how this society has utterly lost its way? Is there a more chilling example of how we have become subservient to objectives diametrically opposed to the responsibility and compassion the great majority of us feel towards the ill, the weak, the unemployed, the impoverished and the marginalised?

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has told us that he will do “whatever it takes” to rescue the banks, but now that it is becoming clearer what “whatever it takes” actually means, and the unimaginable sums involved, maybe it’s time to pause and ask ourselves who we feel the greatest obligation to – our troubled neighbours and relatives, or the faceless high-rollers reckless enough to bankroll Sean FitzPatrick’s €24bn catastrophe.