FG should be shown the door for abysmal failure to reform health

On the basis of the abysmal failure to radically reform our health service, as so faithfully promised in 2011, Fine Gael deserve not to be re-elected to Government, says Alison O’Connor.

It is worth remembering what the party pledged heading into the last general election, with its health plan Faircare. Their manifesto described it as the “most ambitious plan for health service reform since the establishment of the State”. It was designed, the document stated, to reduce costs, increase access and make the system much fairer.

Not even the spinniest of spin doctors could argue that any of these had been achieved. We are further away than ever from what seems like the increasingly unattainable notion of Irish people getting treatment when they need it.