New FG boss must call a General Election urgently
New National Children’s Hospital is world’s most expensive... and not yet open
TOMORROW TDS will gather in the Dail to vote for a “new” Taoiseach.
Except there is nothing new about the heir apparent who looks set to be handed the position by his colleagues.
Simon Harris’ fingerprints are all over the mess that Fine Gael has made during their time in Government.
He has sat at the Cabinet table for eight years as home ownership collapsed, as rents sky-rocketed and as our health services crumbled.
He is a senior minister in a
Government that has lurched from crisis to crisis, while utterly failing to deliver on the issues that matter to people.
Mr Harris has presided over an ever-worsening housing crisis and a crippling cost of living crisis.
And the ballooning of health waiting lists and young people forced to emigrate in search of opportunity and a better life.
In recent weeks, the
Government set another shameful record for the number of homeless people in this State.
Expect more big promises, more big announcements but very little substance or delivery.
We don’t need a crystal ball to know what we are getting with Mr Harris as Taoiseach. We need only look at his abysmal performance as health minister.
He and his Government colleagues seem to have forgotten.
However, ordinary people impacted by this government’s disastrous health policies are not able to forget so easily.
Last week, I visited Limerick and met patients affected by the crisis at UHL.
The seeds of the nightmare experienced in that hospital every day were sown by successive health ministers, including Mr Harris.
When he was health minister, Deputy Harris should have funded the 230 additional beds the hospital needs. If he had done his job, UHL wouldn’t have the perpetual state of emergency it has today.
Mr Harris also wants us to forget he allowed the trolley crisis to escalate, breaking the 100,000 mark twice.
During his term, the number of patients on trolleys went up each year.
He wants us to forget that his time as health minister saw a million patients on hospital waiting lists for the first time.
It was on his watch also the debacle with the National Children’s Hospital deepened, as costs spun out-of-control and chronic delay became the order of the day. Today, the most expensive hospital in the world has yet to open its doors and has yet to treat a single patient. Families still anxiously wait for their children to get the care they desperately need.
Perhaps those who best remember Mr Harris’ stint as health minister are those children living in agony with scoliosis, who he promised would not be waiting more than four months for lifechanging spinal surgery. It was another broken promise.
Mr Harris’ performance as health minister was so bad it caused the 2020 General Election when Fianna Fail said they would not support a motion of confidence in the inept minister.
If he truly believes the public supports this Government and that they back him being Taoiseach, Mr Harris should have nothing to fear from letting the people have their say and call a General Election.
This charade shows that we need change more than ever.
It shows why we need a new Government that will move heaven and earth to fix housing, sort out healthcare, and tackle the cost of living with speed and purpose.
A better Ireland is possible. A fairer, more equal Ireland where workers, families and communities come first is possible.
It’s time for new people, with new ideas. It’s time for change. Not more of the same. It’s time for a General Election.