Children’s hospital inquiry - Another spin on merrygoround

Limerick’s Cian Lynch was named Hurler of the Year for 2018. He is just 23 but in that short life, he has seen more public inquiries, tribunals or hearings than even he could wave a hurley at. Most fell short of provoking the kind of change that the events leading to their establishment demanded.

We are at that point again where a safety-valve inquiry is needed. This time around, the national children’s hospital’s soaring costs provides the theme for the next grand confessional.

How else could it in be in a country where board members appointed by government ministers express a primary loyalty to that board rather than the public interest as represented by the minister?

This confusion, contrived or otherwise, is unacceptable and highlights the culture that, apparently, meant that the Minister for Health Simon Harris was not informed about runaway costs when the hospital board became aware of the issue.

As is usual in these circumstances the air is thick with calls for the minister’s resignation — as if that would resolve anything.

This fiasco has been generations in the making and unless we find the determination necessary to confront the causes rather than the consequences, we will face scandal after scandal.

It may be naive to think that this might be the line-in-the-sand failure that finally forces change but, as one episode after another show, that is unlikely. What an underwhelming way to mark a centenary of independence.