Roscommon Hospital - FG should have known better

Everybody knew that things were going to have to change economically in the current crisis and it was dishonest of any politicians to pretend otherwise. The issue has always been where to make the changes.

As Fine Gael leader during the last general election, Enda Kenny promised to preserve the A&E department at Roscommon Hospital. While campaigning in Roscommon in February he asked voters to elect Denis Naughten and Frank Feighan to the Dáil in order to protect the hospital from “bureaucratic people in a room far away from here”.

The people elected both of them. Mr Naughten voted against the Government this week over the Roscommon Hospital issue. He is now being criticised for backing himself into a corner in threatening to vote against the Government if the A&E services were withdrawn. Are those critics suggesting Mr Naughten should have been more astute by not making the commitment while running for election, or do they believe he should just have done the usual political thing and performed a U-turn and announced he was doing so strictly in the public interest? Such behaviour has promoted considerable disillusionment with politicians.