PD promises - Harney must deliver on health reform

THE Progressive Democrats celebrated 20 years of existence at the party’s national conference in Cork over the weekend. In those two decades the party has the distinction of being in government longer than any party other than Fianna Fáil.

Hence the Progressive Democrats have had a political influence far outweighing their numbers in the Dáil. The party’s influence on Fianna Fáil included the ouster from government of Tánaiste Brian Lenihan and Taoiseach Charles Haughey. Mary Harney, the current leader of the Progressives Democrats, has set her sights on reforming the health service.

As an astute politician, she realised that she was taking on the poison chalice of politics when she requested that portfolio.