Home-help cuts - Croke Park deal must be confronted

Health Minister Dr James Reilly can expect to be dragged over the coals — at the very least — at today’s Cabinet meeting because of his proposals to cut €130m from home care and support programmes. But in a typical Irish denial of reality, those cuts — unacceptable and shaming as they are — are not the real issue at all.

Dr Reilly’s ham-fisted communication practice, deliberate or otherwise, is not the issue either but in this instance it seems so very blunt that it raises a simple question — has he picked this issue to finally confront the dichotomy of the Croke Park protections and the mandate given by the electorate to his Government to reform our public affairs?

Any rational appraisal, no matter what the champions of Croke Park insist, would conclude that reform means reform of an entire system, not just the 15% of the health budget outside Croke Park’s circle of wagons. This argument stands despite assurances that the deal is delivering reform and the required savings, because these assertions have not been independently audited or confirmed. Indeed they have been challenged by some who suggest the savings are nothing like those claimed. Yes, and this is terribly unfortunate, trust is at that low ebb in this society.