Money needed for health service is being used to pay the interest on banks’ debts

SIR, The health service, or lack of it, concerns everyone who has to go to the emergency department in one of our hospitals. It is a shambles. The logjam in A&E is causing elective surgery to be postponed, thus lengthening the hospital waiting lists further. We have two CEOs running the system; the minister Simon Harris and Tony O’Brien, head of the HSE. Are two heads better than one?

We had two doctors, James O’Reilly and Leo Varadker as ministers for health in the last six years. One would have thought that they were the ideal people to run the system efficiently and ‘cure it of its ills’. Not so, in fact under their stewardship, it appears to have deteriorated even more .

‘Best practice’ is a common phrase used in political speak , and of course we should copy best practice. So, why haven’t we examined the efficient systems in countries of similar population and implemented the good ideas here in Ireland?

Micheal Martin promised many years ago to get rid of waiting lists in a timespan of two years. James Reilly went into politics to improve the health system. The results of their efforts are there to be seen.

One doctor per patient would be ideal. Pie in the sky, I hear you say. I agree, but we need to examine the figures and see how many surgeons, doctors, nurses, administrative staff, per head of population, do we need to give a proper service. It is, of course, a cost issue to supply the required number.

Now, we are paying €8 billion in interest per year on our €200-plus debt – not all our own debt, I hasten to add. This needs to be renegotiated, as the Greeks have done on a number of occasions. We are collecting a lot of tax revenue but siphoning off €8 billion is leaving us short in our effort to provide proper social and health services. Surely the profitable banks should now take up their section of our debt – €2.5 billion or so of our interest payments. After all it was their debt, not yours or mine. Meanwhile, we are spending money fighting Europe on behalf of Apple, so as not to accept tax from this most profitable global giant. We allow tax breaks for vulture funds and international property developers. We need to put citizens first.

The health service needs this extra income which the State should be getting. However, the will to get it is not there, it appears, in government circles.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has entered the debate lately; belatedly, in my opinion. His comments are welcome. We needed the support of the hierarchy long before now. However, he should also speak about the injustice of the imposition of bank debt on innocent children, the elderly, the sick and those struggling over the last nine years under austerity. Justice demands that those who should speak out, do so!

RTE’s Prime Time programme a week ago show how ‘cruelty’ is being inflicted on vulnerable children who are living in pain and despair. Cruelty is the only word that describes their treatment by the State.We have lost compassion and caring in the island of saints and scholars. The wrong ideology is destroying our country. Sincerely, Gerry Cournane, Tralee.