Comment: A universal public healthcare system would benefit everyone

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the importance of coming together as a society to overcome the virus. Dr Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne writes that such cooperation is needed to resolve the issues with the Irish health system as a whole

Healthcare workers donning PPE and scrubbing our hands each day did so not just for ourselves, but for the patients under our care and for loved ones at home.

A few weeks ago, Taoiseach Micheál Martin looked sombrely into the country’s living rooms and announced that as coronavirus cases soared, we would need to enter a further, painful period of lockdown.

True to form as a former schoolteacher, Mr Martin concluded with an Irish proverb: “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine”.