Political misjudgement - Kenny needs to be more hard-nosed

It was an almost universal rite of passage in pre-pastoral culture that young men were sent to the forest or savannah, jungle or distant mountain range to single-handedly kill the wolf, the lion, the grizzly bear or whichever animal represented the greatest challenge to his community. If that young man returned with a trophy, his path to life’s next milestone was open and success a possibility. If he did not, it was no more than evolution in action and the tribe moved on.

In Irish life, that tradition is kept alive by appointing ambitious politicians minister for health. Even though three recent incumbents — Mary Harney, Micheál Martin, and Brian Cowen — went on to lead their parties, it is impossible to think they were successful in the department. None of them, despite considerable commitment, in two cases at least, led necessary the change. Each fled the department defeated if not broken, and the great monolith tottered on unhappy, often unloved, and defiantly unmanageable.

That rite of passage’s latest victim, former health minster James O’Reilly was passionate and committed, sometimes too passionate and so committed that he was vulnerable. His over-reach, especially on universal health insurance, cost him office. In the weeks since he succeeded Dr O’Reilly, Leo Varadkar has had to ask for patience on universal health insurance and, in his latest attempt to combine ambition and possibility, asked health insurance companies to freeze premiums for two years. That a Department of Health briefing given to him in July described alternatives to the HSE suggested by Dr Reilly, as “unworkable”, shows Dr O’Reilly had little or no support where it really mattered — among the officer class of the permanent government.