WE’RE IN FATHER TED TERRITORY
GPS street protest SIMON Harris’ efforts to wriggle out of the €2billion National Children’s Hospital scandal has led us into “Father Ted territory”, a TD claimed yesterday.
The comparison to the hit sitcom was made as the Health Minister faced a barrage of criticism over his handling of the runaway project.
But his attempt to claim that he, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar knew nothing about hundreds of millions of euro in overruns was ridiculed at the Oireachtas health committee.
TDS and senators on the scrutiny panel remain unconvinced senior ministers were unaware of the rocketing costs of the huge Dublin hospital.
The official version of events claims the budget-busting overspend of almost €500million only came to light at a briefing between Mr Harris and the Taoiseach on November 9 with Mr Donohoe finding out shortly after.
Yet Mr Harris admitted he was warned the project was running over budget three months earlier and having a senior official from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the hospital development board.
That prompted Labour’s Alan Kelly to liken the whole farce to an episode from Craggy Island.
He said:
“We now Alan Kelly TD know this is a serious, serious escalation. You’ve told us minister that you were shocked, you were absolutely annoyed.
“This is a massive issue and it was all in parallel with budget negotiations going on and you couldn’t get a meeting [with DPER]. “To the public watching outside, you know, this is just Father Ted territory.
“I mean, for the idea that people would not DOCTORS picketed the Dail yesterday over a recruitment crisis they blamed on a lack of Government investment.
The National Association of General Practitioners also said the number of doctors at full patient capacity is a “growing crisis”.
It says the Government must restore the €160million it cut over the last few years in order for the sector to function again.
Addressing the demo, Independent TD Dr Michael Harty said: “Morale is at an all-time low and for those who remain, working conditions are impossible and financially unsustainable.
“The damage will take years to correct. Recruitment is also at an all-time low.
“It is virtually impossible to attract GPS sit down, that there was not an awareness across the two departments that this is an absolutely huge issue and you couldn’t have a meeting, beggars belief.”
Sinn Fein’s health spokeswoman Louise O’reilly said what she heard “raises more questions than answers”. to rural practices and now the problem has started to affect urban practices.”
He said while it was unusual to see doctors protest, it was out of frustration at the failure of this Government and successive ministers to address the crisis.
Dr Harty, who chairs the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, said conditions are prompting doctors to quit Ireland.
He concluded: “Colleagues are responding by emigrating, retiring or only working on a sessional basis because the current model is financially non-viable.” She added: “I find it hard to believe that neither those members of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board or the officials who sat at meetings regarding the cost increases would not have, in some way, relayed these issues to the relevant ministers as the costs were escalating out of control. I hope the Minister for Health, the Minister for Finance and their officials will make themselves available for further questioning because there is still much that is left to be discussed.
“I eagerly await the investigation of PWC as there are many questions to
PSYCHIATRIC nurses escalated their strike action yesterday with some exhausted staff members working for over 24 hours into this morning.
Last night marked the first overtime ban by the PNA and it meant 15 exhausted nurses at
Grangegorman-based Phoenix Centre in North Dublin would have to work through the night for a successive shift.
Staff began their shift at 8pm on Tuesday but because of the escalated PNA strike action there