Leo’s health-budget diagnosis was obvious, but I doubt he can cure it

What a depressing illustration of the dearth of genuine talent within the current political class, if all it takes to be considered the next messiah is for someone like Leo Varadkar to say in public what is clear to everyone who has ever experienced the Irish health service, that the health budget is either not enough or not being spent correctly.

Get that man an economics noble prize.

It seems to have been forgotten that Mr Varadkar was Minister for Transport for over three years. Yet in all that time he never managed to get a grip on CIE’s finances and walked away leaving that unresolved mess for his successor, who seems equally disinclined to sort it out. It’s pretty simple, you review where all the money, cent by cent is spent, and you make that information public, then you engage in a debate with all interested, as opposed to vested interested, parties and then you start making decisions that either spending needs to be reformed or the budget needs to be increased, through tax or the allocation of more resources from other sources and you public your evidence.