Irish Examiner view: Worrying focus on the capital city

Large projects based in Dublin are swallowing HSE funds 

The commitment of €1.33bn to building projects in 2025 was approved by health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill this week, who went on to describe the amount as 'a record' spend. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

News of the HSE capital spending plan is particularly welcome this week, given the global uncertainty sparked by the tariff war created by US president Donald Trump. The commitment of €1.33bn to building projects in 2025 was approved by health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill this week, who went on to describe the amount as “a record” spend.

However, drilling into the detail is a sobering experience. It should be pointed out immediately that the plan for national surgical hubs, a key element of this spending allocation, has been an utter shambles ever since it was announced in 2022.

Six hubs were announced then, with a view to completion within 18 months, but only one has been opened since.

There is also a worrying focus on the capital city in the building plans announced this week.

For instance, “complete construction” of a national surgical hub is only referred to in relation to the hub in North Dublin — even though the capital already has far more surgical facilities than any other part of the country.

Another project in Dublin swallows up a large amount of the funding in this building plan. Relatively modest allocations for smaller facilities around the country — Tipperary North receiving €1.9m — are balanced by large-scale spending for University Hospital Limerick (€107m) and University Hospital Waterford (€40m). However, all are dwarfed by the €210m earmarked for the Children’s Hospital in Dublin — a project mired in controversy for years.

These concerns do not even include long-standing questions about the HSE’s financial discipline. This week Michael Cawley, appointed to the health service board last year, said its €91.3m annual travel and subsistence bill was “too high” and “much more control needed to be exercised by management”. Formerly of Ryanair, Mr Cawley advocated for more use of online conference platforms such as Teams and Zoom, for instance, rather than foreign travel.

The very need to state such reasonable measures aloud is an illuminating one. It explains a good deal about the HSE, and about any scepticism regarding its new spending plan.

Road regulations in need of an overhaul

Recent days have seen a string of fatalities on our roads, deaths which have brought the matter of road safety to the fore again.

In that context, it was stunning to read Cianan Brennan’s story here about disqualified drivers who do not surrender their driving licences as required by law. More than 11,400 licences, both learners’ and fully qualified drivers’, have been disqualified since the start of 2024 — but only 730, or 6.4%, of those licences had been surrendered to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) by the end of February this year.

There is little ambiguity about those figures: When a driver is disqualified, they are required to surrender the physical driving licence to the RSA — which then returns the document to the driver when the disqualification period ends.

The fact that the RSA does not have those physical licences means there are over 10,000 disqualified drivers who have not complied with a basic legal requirement.

How many of those disqualified drivers continue to drive despite having no legal permission to do so?

It is also deeply concerning to note the apparent lack of urgency in dealing with this. Answering Dáil questions on the matter, transport minister Darragh O’Brien said non-surrender of licences was “of concern” but the “more important issue, from a road safety perspective, is that the disqualification from driving is observed”.

Given the obvious conclusion many people will reach, this seems a generous interpretation. Disqualified drivers are retaining their driving licences because they simply wish to keep driving. This impression is strengthened by the realisation that it is not clear whether gardaí can even identify disqualified drivers at road checkpoints because the national vehicle and driver file database is not updated on a daily basis.

The overall impression is one of a regime which simply does not work. If regulation, enforcement, detection, and databases do not function, how else can it be described?

Breaking barriers

The cost-of-living crisis has been a stark reality for many people, and the looming shadow of tariff conflict offers little respite. Nobody is expecting the price of everyday goods to fall when and if Donald Trump finally settles on his punitive financial policies.

All the more reason, then, to praise the Cork College of Further Education and Training (FET) for waiving all fees for all of its Level 5 and 6 courses next year — a decision made specifically to ensure cost is not a factor for those considering further education.

The decision will benefit thousands of learners who have a choice of some 200 courses being offered at Cork FET’s seven campuses across the county for the 2025-2026 academic year.

“By eliminating fees for the upcoming academic year, Cork College of FET continues to honour the legacy of St Finbarr, the patron saint of Cork, who dedicated his life to teaching,” said Denis Leamy, the chief executive of the Cork Education and Training Board (Cork FET is part of Cork ETB’s Further Education and Training Services).

This is a hugely positive decision with the potential to benefit thousands of people, helping them to acquire new skills and qualifications. Any barrier to education is a significant barrier, so removing potential obstacles shows a level of imagination and generosity that other organisations would do well to copy.

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