Browne’s politics of the asylum

Its not so long ago that John Gormley compared being in government to an sylum It seems that our local FF TD John Browne has taken this suggestion with gusto judging by the PR disaster that was the FF Wexford General Election Selection Convention. While the Wexford Labour convention was a vibrant and optimistic, Fianna Fail was predicated on the back of a internal sounding showing that they are unlikely hold their 2 seats. Subsequently the party decided to run just 2 candidates presumable the sitting TD’s, Minister Sean Connick and John Browne.
Wexford born Minister Dick Roche was scheduled to chair the convention at what should have been a shoe in. In fact few would have noticed the convention was being held such is the low esteem the party is held in Wexford until veteran TD John Browne who topped the poll just 3 years ago woke up to the reality that Labour’s Pat Cody who works in the local psychiatric hospital in Enniscorthy was eating into this support in the district. St Senan’s is threatened with closure and Browne had continuously pointed to a government commitment to build an acute psychiatric unit on the grounds of Wexford General Hospital until earlier this week when the HSE said that acute psychiatric services for Wexford would be relocated to Waterford or Wicklow. This move would damage Browne’s standing and a continued slump in his personal support would have left Browne behind Cody and more crucially from Browne’s point of view Minister Connick meaning that his seat was in jeopardy. As a result John Browne threw a wobbly resulting in the deferring of the convention until January.
John prides himself in Fianna Fail’s support for the health services in Wexford, indeed he wrote a letter to Wexford Borough council lately lecturing members of this fact. No downgrading of Wexford hospital services is a FF mantra of late locally. To underline how desperate things are now in FF, Browne hung his FF colleague out to dry by siding with the opposition TD’s like Labours Brendan Howlin in pledging to change the minister’s mind on the matter.


How times have changed in the last 10 years! When Wexford Electronics closed during the General Election in 2002 there was no wobbly by Deputy Browne despite the fact that many experienced workers got a lousey redundancy deal. They protested locally and at Leinster House, all to no avail. Clearly the Gormley’s politics of the asylum speech has now struck a chord with John and he sees it as throwing him a lifeline in the General Election. As to why John wants to stand, I don’t know. FF may be heading for opposition but I always warn against taking the voters for granted. FF may not do as badly as forecast, FG, Labour and Sinn Fein may not have the election there way, but it’s hard to see FF in office after the next GE. Fianna Fail shafted him from ministerial office at a time when he was openly speculating about being elevated to the cabinet. He owes them nothing.

Who Fianna Fail has as their candidates for a toxic party is a matter for themselves. The word is out that they neither have enough canvassers to conduct a broad sweep of housing estates in a canvass nor enough voters in Wexford to elect 2 FF TD’s. I believe FF candidates will be targeting those who they have on their data bases and ensuring that these people will turn out on polling day as they hope to reverse negative opinion polls. Browne’s shenanigans is a wonderful compliment to Pat Cody and the Labour Party. John is not worried about Sinn Fein or the ULA candidate but Cody’s presence right in Browne’s back yard has the potential to quote Browne’s hero Bertie to “upset the apple

When is a joke not a joke and when A&E is sidelined

This week’s Wexford People leads with a comment that John Browne TD made at the Rally in support of Wexford General Hospital last Sunday night. As part of his address to 1,000 people, including myself who had gathered in Whites Hotel, Deputy Browne told us that his daughter who’s in a wheelchair and is 23 asked him to oppose cutting back opening hours at Wexford’s A&E because he claimed she needed it when drunk and that she didn’t want to stop drinking.
It’s a shame that the meeting’s purpose has been diverted by such a remark because people turned out on an autumn evening to listen to politicians, a consultant, nurses, EMT’s and staff set out their concerns about the future of Accident and Emergency at Wexford General Hospital. Our deputy, Brendan Howlin had worked hard to promote the meeting for some time and has tenaciously highlighted how the hospital is being run primarily by accountants rather than doctors. His website contains a petition and if you follow the supplied link you can sign the petition and add your name to the list of those opposed to any downgrading of our generla hospital.

Lets get to the point of the meeting, Dr Colm Quigley succinctly set out what the HSE network group are looking at in terms of re-configuration of services. He set out which services had been transferred to ensure a better service to the county and what he felt he needed to ensure acute services and A&E could continue to be delivered better at Wexford General. Nobody demurred from the theme of the meeting. If anything the meeting could have gone on for longer as the chairman brought down the curtain with a motion committing to re-meet when the network report is published. I had the chance at the end of the meeting to talk with Dr Quigley and ask if the ambulance service was capable of delivering a service to Co Wexford in the context of A&E moving to Waterford and as to whether the EMT’s were available to crew ambulances. His reply was one that gave me a sense of both the betrayal and frustration that is obvious in some consultants at middle size hospitals such as Sligo or Wexford at present.
I don’t accept John Browne’s explanation of the comments as joke, no more than I think Tommy Tiernan’s Anti-Jewish remarks at Electric Picnic were funny. Both Tiernan and Browne have effectively highjacked a serious issue for the purpose of self promotion. Families of politicians are effectively off limits in the context of political attacks, but how does one respond when a politician humiliates a member of his family as a means of self-promotion. As I listened to John speak, I could barely believe what I was hearing. What John said was gormless, crass and in bad taste. It is telling that he believes most 23 year olds interaction with A&E is to deal with excessive alcohol consumption. Last year I attended a conference where Senator Phil Prendergast set out how medical staff in A&E’s feel threatened by violence from people with excessive alcohol. It’s no laughing matter, I can tell you. He doesn’t need to explain himself to the people of Wexford however and most of important of all, he needs to apologise to his daughter