Primary care centres - Stroke politics are an insult

Ever since coming to power last year members of the Government have been warning about the hard decisions that have to be taken.

Nobody doubts that they inherited a mess and that difficult, unpopular decisions are necessary.

The electorate is intelligent enough to appreciate the real situation. Some of the opposition have been engaged in irresponsible rabble rousing, which could become very dangerous, especially if members of the Government do not awaken to the dangers of the double standards some of them have been exhibiting.

Fine Gael promised new politics. Changes do take time, but the party will be making a serious mistake if it thinks it can retain credibility while adopting the same discredited policies as its predecessors. Micheál Martin’s call for the resignation of Health Minister James Reilly over the preferment of two primary care centres in his own constituency would not have sounded so hollow if Mr Martin had had the courage to speak out in government when some of his own colleagues were engaging in the naked preferment of their own constituencies.

Former junior minister Roisín Shortall is in a much more credible position, having resigned in protest against such behaviour. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that a number of changes were made to the list of primary care centres only hours before its publication as part of the Government’s stimulus package last July.

Ms Shortall avoided playing the old politics as usual when she denounced the minister’s late inclusion of Balbriggan and Swords from his own constituency in the list on the eve of its publication. This is the kind of “stroke” politics that the Government promised to end.

The rankings were drawn up by the HSE in favour of deprived areas. The HSE recommended the top 30 locations, but four others were added. Those included Balbriggan, which was ranked in 44th position, and Swords, which was in 130th position.

Two other areas were also included, following the intervention of government politicians — Kilkenny was included in the list even though it was only ranked in 151st position, while Ballaghaderreen was 244th. Ms Shortall says that she resigned as a junior minister in protest against those four late additions.

The documents released do not support the convoluted efforts of Mr Reilly to justify what happened. Ms Shortall is convincing in her contention that the four additions were simply “political patronage”.

People are taking to the streets in frustration. Cuts to home health and other needy areas cannot be justified in any way when members of the Government adopt double standards and operate on a basis of favouritism towards their own constituencies, where there is not as great a need. Nobody can realistically suggest that this is fair. It is not only grossly unfair, it is also an insult to the intelligence of the electorate.