Health Minister fired board chairman ‘for looking into an empty field’

THERE is a fundamental contradiction between what the Taoiseach said at Bodenstown (October 17) about “not stifling debate” and his kneejerk approval of Health Minister Mary Harney’s ‘una duce, una voce’, bully-girl policy on the proposed National Children’s Hospital.

We may never know what has been going on behind the scenes, (and particularly at development board level) in what Gay Byrne has called “a turkey” and the distinguished paediatrician, Roisin Healy, describes as “a pup” — and your own Matt Cooper simply calls “crazy”.

However, Minister Harney appointed as chair to that board a very competent, conscientious, hard-headed businessman, Philip Lynch, to steer the construction through to its fruition. Sadly for her purposes, she chose the wrong man. After three years, Mr Lynch has come to the conclusion, in his words, that if the five issues he lists in a very carefully drafted statement are not addressed, “the successful delivery of the new hospital, wherever it is located, is at serious risk”.