Alison O'Connor: Razor-thin public tolerance for boys at top tier of arrogance league

There is a mean atmosphere running through many aspects of our public discourse. This is directly connected to the scarcity of tolerance that can exist during a frightening pandemic

Michael Cullen has remained in his role at the Beacon Hospital despite publicly-owned vaccines being given to teachers and staff at the private fee-paying school attended by his children. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

I wanted to impress upon the consultant that my elderly relative was really sick, despite fronting up well when doctors or nurses were in the hospital room. A day or two after surgery there was a real issue with delirium. This was a person who in normal times was totally “with it”.

“You know”, I told the doctor, trying to give a sense of the paranoia going on, “there are some crazy delusions going on, not least an entire conspiracy theory surrounding Denis O’Brien". Quick as a flash, as he leaned against the wall of the Denis O’Brien-owned Beacon Hospital, he responded: “Well who doesn’t have one of those going on?” Touché Doctor.

I’m glad to say my family member, who received good care, made a full recovery from what turned out to be a post-operative infection. This was around five years ago and while the dial has been turned down on our O’Brien-related conspiracy theories, owing mostly to his significant divestment of media industry shareholdings, the shadow of the highly controversial businessman still looms over our public life.

Right now there is a mean atmosphere running through many aspects of our public discourse. This is directly connected to the scarcity of tolerance that can exist when you find yourself living through the consequences of a very frightening global pandemic. Cutting slack for people who are seen to do the wrong thing is not where things are at right now.

We might, for instance, in a more reflective mood, look back a little differently on the Gordon Elliott controversy, where the trainer was photographed sitting on the back of a dead horse. Clearly this should never have happened. But judging from the outcry you might have believed the man had killed the horse with his bare hands, before then sitting on it’s back.

Still though Elliot copped on quickly enough. He took his punishment and expressed profound public contrition.

Beacon betrayal

If only a lesson from this handbook was taken from the crowd in charge at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin. Denis O’Brien’s chief executive, Michael Cullen, has remained resolutely in situ there, despite publicly-owned vaccines being given to teachers and staff at the private fee-paying school attended by Mr Cullen’s children.

 Michael Cullen, CEO of the Beacon Hospital.

To borrow further from the horse racing world, the necks on display here are clearly made from even tougher stuff than the nether regions of jockeys. 

A Taoiseach describes your action as 'repugnant', yet the response is to continue to tough it out

Also slow to catch on, although eventually dragged there, was the gang at stockbrokers Davy. The State’s largest stockbroking firm was fined over €4 million by the Central Bank last month for what was essentially a rogue trade by its own staff.

Again, with this response, we were looking at a strange lack of awareness around where Irish society is at right now.

Our politicians are afraid of their own shadow at the moment so the Government was quick to get its Davy criticism in. Then there was the decision by the National Treasury Management Agency to withdraw Davy’s authority to act as a primary dealer in Irish Government bonds. Now Davy look set to be taken over. Would the details even have emerged in the “old days”? If it had would it simply have been a rap on the knuckles and business as usual?

Ulster Bank has just been fined €38 million by the Central Bank for its actions in the tracker mortgage scandal. So much to choose from here, but the manner in which this bank, and other Irish banks who did similarly, treated people in this particular scandal is at the top tier of the arrogance league. Think of all the people who lost their homes as a result.

Public perception

Back then to the Beacon. This is also the private hospital that held out the longest before signing up to a deal with the HSE at the beginning of this year, when our virus levels were soaring. Maybe we shouldn’t be too stunned at the seeming lack of concern now for how their actions have been perceived.

One can’t help but wonder who else in the golden circle benefitted from the Beacon’s generosity with the taxpayer-owned vaccine How many more jabs for the boys were given out? A clap on the back and a shot in the arm.

 The chief executive of the VHI, John O’Dwyer did the decent thing and has stood aside while the jab he received from the Beacon is investigated. 

There have been reports of staff at other health insurers being offered Beacon jabs as part of some commercial back slapping.

The Government has suspended the Beacon’s vaccination centre, which was being run for the HSE. The hospital said in its statement earlier this week that it had vaccinated more than 9,000 HSE staff against Covid-19. You’d like to see a name, age and occupation for every single vaccine administered there.

Empty apology

Borrowing from a version of the old Fianna Fail line of “I’m sorry if you were offended”, the Board of the Beacon Hospital has said in a statement it “unreservedly apologises to our patients, staff and the wider community for the upset caused by the vaccination of teachers in the Beacon Vaccination Centre”. To point out the obvious they did not say a clear sorry for blatantly breaching protocols surrounding the administration of the vaccine.

In a further quaint twist, fitting perfectly with the picture of the typical Irish scandal — a major Dublin law firm has now entered the picture. The Beacon decided there was nothing for it only to come up with its own review, and appoint its own person to head that up. This is in the guise of the former managing partner and Chairman of Arthur Cox solicitors, Eugene McCague, also a former member of the Board of the HSE.

I’ve no doubt Mr McCague is a man of the highest integrity. But I wonder why he has decided to dirty his hands with a process that people are entirely likely to dismiss as a sham. In fact, the way is wind is blowing in Irish public life right now being associated with the Beacon like this could turn out to be a very toxic move.

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When it comes to Davy’s, as well as with Ulster Bank and the other banks we see a similar theme at work. We see more significant consequences, but a remaining lack of personal accountability. No individuals were named in the Central Bank’s statement on Ulster Bank last week. We are long overdue the introduction of the much-promised Senior Executive Accountability Regime, the finer points of which the Department of Finance has been knocking around since 2019. The Government knows it is a matter of urgency now.

Clearly, Michael Cullen’s responsibilities and the scale of what happened at the Beacon around vaccine rollout is different. Although we are still referring to a vaccine for a deadly virus. 

But you can certainly join the dots when it comes to attitude. What he and his boss Denis O’Brien may yet discover though is that our collective tolerance for such exceptionalism is razor-thin now — be it stockbrokers, bankers or hospital bosses spreading vaccine largesse. This “review” may give them a little breathing space, but it’s not the end of the story by a long shot.