Thankfully, Harris is no Browne

■ In her recent article (‘Harris lacks the political will to cure our relentless health crises’, Irish Independent, January 9), Colette Browne laments the inability of the current Health Minister to tackle chronic, and long gestating, failings in our health service.

Her less-than-positive view of Health Minister Simon Harris may or may not be justified. What is certainly unjustified, however, is the hero worship she displays with respect to former health minister Noel Browne.

Ms Browne describes him as the “minister who almost single-handedly spearheaded a programme” that led to the eradication of tuberculosis. In fairness to Ms Browne, her perception of this period in our history (1948-1951) is widely shared.

It is a view rather lacks nuance, however. Certainly, there is no gainsaying the fact that Noel Browne brought a certain crusading zeal to the Department of Health, and that his energy and dynamism were helpful in publicising the anti-TB programme.

However, the reality is that the programme to eradicate TB (and for that matter the infamous ‘Mother and Child scheme’) was not his creation.

In fact, the lion’s share of the preparatory work for eradicating TB had been carried out by James Deeny, chief medical officer at the Department of Health between 1944 and 1950; and some credit must also be given to the previous Fianna Fáil minister, James Ryan, who supported Mr Deeny’s efforts. Given the ‘tragic hero’ status that Mr Browne later received – certainly within left-wing circles – it may be worthy of note that he was fortunate to have been able to capitalise upon the work of those such as Mr Deeny.

We know this largely as a consequence of historical research and access to archival resources that only became available many years later.

Just as such sources were not accessible to journalists then, many of the intricate details of Mr Harris’s work are not available today – a factor that may perhaps detract from Ms Browne’s negative view of our current minister in years to come.

Additionally, Ms Browne states: “Simon Harris has provided little evidence that he is a politician of (Noel) Browne’s calibre.” If she is in fact correct, perhaps we should be grateful.

Noel Browne’s history of political bed-hopping (Clann na Poblachta, Fianna Fáil, the National Progressive Democrats, the Labour Party and the Socialist Labour Party) was indicative of an individual known for displaying a difficult and uncompromising attitude, and an inability to work comfortably with others.

In times of crisis, such as we are currently experiencing in our health service, a conciliatory and committed minister is what we need. Irrespective of other potential failings, Mr Harris has, at least, provided ample evidence that he holds these necessary traits.

Dr Séan Ó Duibhir Gaillimh