Bad night for Ireland but an appalling night for Lenihan

I have often been critical of the decisions that Brian Lenihan has taken as Minister for Finance. In the last year I have blogged about how government decisions on NAMA, banking, pay and budgetary cuts have impacted on the country. As line minister Brian Lenihan is responsible for these but he acted at the behest of a collective cabinet. All ministers share the responsibility of their decisions in cabinet. I am implacably opposed to many of the decisions this government has made.

However I’m shocked at how news of the minister’s health has been released by TV3. Surely the channel that learnt just 2 days ago of the minister’s condition should have sat on the news? The minister has said that he’ll meet the press early in the new year. Do I have the right to know about the minister’s serious health concern now? I don’t think so. This is, in my view, an invasion of the minister and his families privacy. Where exactly is the line between the public’s right to know and the individual’s right to privacy? It seems to me that the TV channel has gone too far on this. While RTE reported the matter there was no reportage nor expert opinion nor indeed effective obituary of the minister as TV3 reported. I’m certain that the TV3 report will be the basis of a complaint to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of Ireland on the basis that it infringed the Minister’s right to privacy.
Given the reality of 24 hour electronic media and the right of anyone to use this information as they see fit, it was certain that some sick clown would find the space to level at the minister and already a facebook page has been set up hoping that the minister dies of a tumour. While the TV channel is not directly responsible for the clown’s behaviour, the reality is that the page wouldn’t be there but for the nature of the news report. When TV3 comes looking for a better share of the TV license fee I wonder what the response for the government will be?
John Crown is an eminent Oncologist and advocate for a better health service in this country. I respect him greatly however tonight he did himself or his views any good by allowing himself to be interviewed in relation to the matter. The nature of a 2 minute piece to camera speculating on the possible outcomes for someone who is not his patient is bad taste. My respect for him is less tonight as indeed it is for Michael O’Leary who published ads lampooning Mary O’Rourke (Lenihan’s aunt) at the time of her own husband’s death.
There have to be boundaries in public life and the need for a different news angle so as to attract viewers cannot dictate the norms in relation to an individual’s privacy. I don’t like to attack the media but having seen TV3 tonight it deserves a rap on the knuckles this time. I now fear that tabloid papers will rush in where TV3 has gone. Nobody will come well out of this. Rightly Brian Lenihan will get the sympathy of the Irish people but the media will get a bashing that they haven’t got since the wrongly reported on the death of Liam Lawlor. Bad night for Ireland but an appalling night for the Lenihan’s. I wish him well and hope that his health recovers.

FF TD’s resignation stunt officially opens the silly season

I don’t think anyone is fooled anymore by the antics of the 2 FF TD’s in Sligo. They’re wasting their breath spoofing the country. The local FF TD’s in Yeat’s own county have weaved their own spell in words, sounding concerned but doing precious little about it. Because of the centralistion of cancer care in Galway they’ve resigned the FF whip. The 2 TD’s studiously avoid the facts that the NW is the last regions to get breast check on their watch almost 10 years after it was rolled out elsewhere in the country. Where was the FF deputies concern then?


One who is known as a former Minster for State at the Department of Health and was recently sacked by the Taoiseach and the other not even a household name in his own household. The boys are obviously fed up with getting it on the neck from the local electorate about how the HSE is downgrading the local hospital and have opted for the politics of gesture not action. Lets get this straight, Deputy Devins, emphasises he’s still very much a member of Fianna Fail, he wants to only make an issue of local cancer care and doesn’t seem too put out by the other government cuts and to be fair to him he can’t as he voted for them all. So Special Needs Assistants, garda cutbacks, the cutbacks in REPS, social welfare cuts and waiting lists at the HSE everywhere else are something he’ll live with. Indeed even more, he’ll re-join FF in the future according to his interview with Philip Boucher Hayes. Are they going to bite the bullet and vote against FF in the Dail? Not now, not ever, unless a motion is put down to provide cancer services in Sligo.

So if both deputies are genuine in all that they hope to achieve and are confident that they have the people of Sligo behind them then should they not resign their seats and force by-elections, seeking a mandate in the area against the proposed cuts in cancer care and then go back to Brian Cowan with their hand strengthened? Anything less to my mind is self serving and cynical, as was the statement by one deputy that it wasn’t about his seat!

So what are the lessons for us in Wexford? Here we also have 2 FF deputies who’ve made known in the privacy of their parliamentary party meetings unfortunately in the absence of our Minister for Health, Mary Harney. So far their efforts have come to nought so I’ll let you conclude how effective any utterance is in FF. So when the special HSE group reconfiguring the south east hospital recommend the downgrading of A&E in Wexford General Hospital, what will Deputy John Browne (another Junior Minister sacked by Cowan) and Seán Connick do?

Both owe Cowen precious little. John Browne’s long cherished desire to serve in cabinet will go unfulfilled, Connick surely knows he’ll be around for an awful lot longer in political terms than Cowen and surely will note what FF TD’s did exactly 30 years ago when they felt that their seats were in danger during the last Jack Lynch government.
30 years ago FF backbenchers stuck it into the leadership, the question is now have they the bottle now to fight for their communities or not? I wonder did WB Yeats have Fianna Fail in mind when he wrote “I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed a waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind, In balance with this life”?