Leo leads by example while AIB sees euro signs amid Covid crisis
I’ M not sure how your week has been, dear reader, but if it’s been anything like mine, you deserve every treat, random online purchase and TV binge watching session your heart desires.
This health crisis and the restrictions that followed has impacted all of our lives in ways we never imagined anything could. It has been a leveller, reducing the things we thought important and took for granted every day of our lives so far, to complete luxuries.
Spending time with loved ones, eating out, going to the beach are all being jotted down in wish lists, stored away for a sunny day, hopefully in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile we are witnessing some of the most life affirming actions happening all around us. In our hospitals, in GP surgeries, in supermarkets and in communities, people are showing how great they are when challenged to be so.
Well, most people. The sad sight of plastic gloves outside supermarkets remind us that for many this will just be another golden opportunity to be a selfish gobshite.
The actions of our nation’s Taoiseach in re-registering as a medical practitioner which will see him work one shift a week to help out during the coronavirus crisis have highlighted leadership in the same week the Scottish chief medical officer was caught with holidaying during their lockdown. Dr Catherine Calderwood made two trips to her second holiday home during the country’s lockdown, setting a terrible, Trumpian example for her country. She apologised for her actions, and initially said she planned to continue in the role, but Dr Calderwood released a statement later on Sunday saying she had quit. She said she had done so after speaking again to the first minister, and had agreed with her that the ‘justifiable focus’ on her actions risked distracting from the pandemic response.
Mr Varadkar, who worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician and was removed from the medical register in 2013, rejoined the medical register in March, and offered his services to the HSE for one session a week, in areas that are within his scope of practice.
It’s understood Mr Varadkar will carry out phone assessments to free up staff for frontline work. Inevitably he has come in for criticism, especially online, where trolls enjoy the occasional feast on political blood.
Why, you might ask, well the prescient matter of Government formation naturally enough. But health is wealth and should be the top priority.
Compared to the bumbling buffoon in the White House, Mr Varadkar has been a shining light of reason and calm amid what are extraordinary, unprecedented times.
He took up Ireland’s call following Health Minister Simon Harris’ recruitment drive for the HSE as it prepared to tackle the coronavirus outbreak with a stark message: ‘Your country needs you.’
The HSE received more than 70,000 responses for its ‘Be on call for Ireland’ initiative – amazing! It’s a pity the management team in AIB have failed to embrace the call to action for the greater good with such gusto. In a spectacular own goal, the bank decided to collect quarterly fees on the same day as when the €350 Covid-19 payment was made to hundreds of thousands of Irish people who are out of work through no fault of their own. I’ve banked with AIB all my life, since I was a chap lodging Communion money. Being penny wise might see the last laugh on them.