Irish Examiner View: ‘Ambitious targets’ can’t be all talk

A patient is prepared for a CT scan. File Picture.

Timely access to basic healthcare should be one of the minimum asks of every health service, but once again ours has been found wanting.

It is not acceptable that potentially life-saving scans for tens of thousands of people are being delayed and that more than 46,000 people have been waiting for up to 18 months to be seen.

Unpublished data from the National Treatment Purchase Fund shows that a staggering 299,736 people are waiting for CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds. Most have been hanging around for up to 12 months to be seen, while ‘only’ 46,000 are waiting for up to 18 months.

As one cancer survivor told this news organisation: “Every extra day matters. It’s hard to articulate how anxious waiting can make you, it’s unbearable. You’re thinking this is growing all the time. It’s inside me and it’s growing.”

There is no shortage of economists and politicians telling us that Ireland is now “a rich country” and yet money cannot be found to invest in the necessary equipment and people to keep us healthy.

This is incongruous at best and unacceptable at the least and yet we do not know why this is the case, nor who exactly is responsible. Research has shown that every four-week delay in starting cancer treatment increases mortality by 10%.

Ahead of the first regional distribution of funds by the HSE, its stated mission of ‘ambitious targets’ for increasing activity and reducing waiting times seems far-fetched in the face of ever-increasing queues and patients with through-the-roof anxiety levels.

In response, a HSE spokesperson said access to scans will be prioritised. Words must lead to action. Lives depend on it.

Bottlehill super dump: Using one issue to solve another

Entrance to the Bottlehill residual landfill site. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Given that we are in the throes of a housing crisis which has permeated and convulsed society like few others of recent memory, the news that the Bottlehill super dump north of Cork City is to be sold off, without ever having taken in a single bag of rubbish, struck an immediate chord.

With Cork County Council being urged to sell off this €50m white elephant because it is an economic millstone around the local authority’s neck, surely there would be considerable merit in investigating if it could be repurposed for housing instead.

Situated as it is on the Mallow-Cork corridor where demand for new housing is as critical as it is in any other part of the country, surely this substantial landbank — upon which so much development money has been lavished — could be an invaluable local and national asset.

With councils across the country under Government pressure to rezone land for housing if the needs of the people are to be met, this one strategic landbank seems an obvious example of how one problem could be used to solve another.

Ireland — as is the case across Europe — needs swift action to counteract the housing crisis and any outside-the-box solutions are welcome.

It may be that there are sound engineering reasons for not zoning Bottlehill for housing, but if there are not, then this is a potential resource that cannot be overlooked.

 

Standing firm on war in Ukraine

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks into the camera while delivering a video address to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The blunderbuss diplomacy policies of the US, with the trigger being pulled by Donald Trump in characteristic fashion, will not in itself bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, Trump’s mysterious allegiance to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, led to what appeared to be a Moscow-biased ‘peace plan’, which involved Ukraine losing much territory, unable to join Nato, and being militarily emasculated, and was rightly panned by any reasoned observer.

That there is growing momentum in the efforts to stop this needless — and illegal — war which was, after all, instigated by the Russians, is very welcome. But its belligerence in trying to dictate the terms of a cessation of hostilities is not acceptable to anyone outside the Kremlin.

European leaders, meeting on the sidelines of the EU-Africa summit in Angola, concluded that Ukrainian red lines on territory and sovereignty had to be respected. This was in stark contrast with Trump’s grouchy assertion that by not agreeing to obviously unpalatable terms, Kyiv was being “ungrateful”.

Thankfully some common sense has prevailed with US and Ukrainian officials reportedly having narrowed the gaps between them yesterday and modifying the 28-point peace plan.

In a joint statement, Washington and Kyiv said they had drafted a “refined peace framework” with details yet to emerge.

EU leaders have been of one voice in their opinion that while many issues remain unresolved, the direction of the negotiations has been positive. They have also noted that US attempts to blindside Europe on the talks will not work.

Sweden and Poland — both having borders with Russia, are understandably nervous about any capitulation to Moscow, sensing they could be next in line if Russia’s expansionism widens — are both pushing for further pressure on the Russians, including the use of its frozen assets within the EU.

We too here in Ireland are not isolated from Russian threats — as seen in the past week by the presence of a spy ship in our waters and an admission by authorities that the Russians jammed an Irish aircraft communications channel.

Peace will not happen overnight, but the Russians need to know they cannot get their way merely by pulling levers in Washington and gaslighting the rest of us with unadorned poppycock.