Action speaks louder than words, Simon

HEALTH Minister Simon Harris is clearly a man of good intentions but, as the proverb has it, the road to Hell is paved with them. Far from being proactive, he seems to focus more on fire-fighting every crisis that lands on his desk. Yesterday, he asked the HSE to postpone cuts to support for women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer. It had decided without informing the minister to reduce allowances for prostheses and bras – the aids women need after surgery.

This is the latest in a long line of public rowbacks. After the HSE refused to pay for the drug Orkambi for cystic fibrosis patients, Mr Harris had to step in to deal directly with the manufacturer. It took a massive outcry over ownership of St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, before he again intervened and the Sisters of Charity finally volunteered to play no role in the management of the proposed new national maternity hospital on that campus. And this week, he intervened in the sad case of Michael and Kathleen Devereux, forcibly separated after 63 years of marriage when he was approved for the Fair Deal nursing home scheme and she was not.

That the outcomes in all cases were successful might appear to make Mr Harris look like an effective minister but they do the opposite. They make it look like either the HSE is deliberately laying booby traps by keeping him in the dark about matters it knows will be contentious – or he has not established a viable chain of communication between himself and those who supposedly report to him. Mr Harris is a young man, with lots of energy and an ability on radio and TV to appear to be on top of his brief. But the time to be in command is before controversies explode. Every case here should have been anticipated and headed off at the pass. Since they were not, it is fitting to return to another old saying and ask – when it comes to the HSE and the minister, is the tail wagging the dog?