Why politicians love HSE

WE’VE seen angry scenes in the Dáil and at a Dáil committee as TDs lay into the HSE over the cervical cancer scandal. Some of them can’t contain their outrage.

But the truth is, politicians would be lost without the HSE. As Sam Smyth points out (MoS, April 29), it provides a wonderful political firewall for health ministers and governments when scandals erupt. They can immediately profess shock, condemn HSE chiefs and demand immediate action, while making clear that they knew nothing about whatever the unfolding scandal is. Without the HSE, the buck would clearly stop with the Department of Health, the health minister and the taoiseach of the day. And that would never do.

So Simon Harris’s daily expressions of rage are best ignored. He’s not going to change anything. Pat Hickey, Bray, Co. Wicklow.