HEART BEAT: I have been upbraided for ignoring the children lately. However, I have not forgotten them and since Christmas comes earlier every year, I am preparing a special column for them entitled "the real truth about Christmas, or the perpetual Irish pantomime" writes Dr Maurice Neligan.
Just a word of early advice to the little ones, put your stockings out early as there seems to be lots of money this year. Do it now before some other shower grab it all for PPPs or something useful like another tribunal?
I have always been fascinated by elections. I sat up until 3 a.m., on November 3rd, until it became clear President George W. Bush would be returned to power in the United States, and that the Republican party was having a very good night also, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
I was very impressed with the enthusiasm displayed for the democratic process, and by the willingness of the electoral authorities to facilitate the voters, polling stations staying open for up to five hours after the official closing time to clear the queues outside. Likewise giving provisional ballot papers to those who could not immediately prove identity or had turned up at the incorrect polling station.
The ease of postal voting and the provision of early voting were all designed to enfranchise as many people as possible.
The atmosphere was electric and the whole exercise reflected credit on all participants, candidates, voters and officials. It was the epitome of democracy. Might I suggest that more efforts should be made here to facilitate voters and encourage participation?
The American people have voted decisively. It is their country and their government. They can probably do very well without our opinions. We would not welcome outside interference in our democratic processes, and would rightly resent such meddling.
Why should the Americans be any different? "Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7).
We have enough motes on our own little patch to be going on with, without endeavouring to settle the rest of the world. The US and Ireland have a great and historical connection and I think they would appreciate it if we behaved like true friends These are not easy times in the world and evil is abroad. The source of this evil is not the US with all of whose actions and decisions, some may not approve.
The US, however, has given freely of its people and treasure to help the underprivileged and oppressed around the world. It has contributed more in humanitarian aid than all other countries combined. Let us encourage dialogue with this friendly giant and work towards the conversion of the swords into ploughshares.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, (ours, not George's) one has the impression that in the health services, we are in the period of calm before the storm.
We are going to sell off land that is surplus to requirements, and reinvest the proceeds in the service. Good idea, but it is hardly new. Let us not hold the communal breath waiting for the fruits of this to become apparent.
In the meantime while visiting a large general hospital outside Dublin, and talking with staff, the story was distressingly familiar, under-funding, overcrowding. This hospital would logically be developed into a regional centre à la Hanly.
It cannot cope with its own problems let alone those of the smaller hospitals within its catchment area.
Maybe I missed something, but are there any reports on the progress of the Hanly pilot areas? I was intrigued to be told €30 million had been spent on reports in the health service. I am surprised and would like to know how such costings were calculated.
Frankly, I would have believed the costings to be much higher. The results however are transparent and negligible.
All hospital, and healthcare staff at present operate in a dense fog of uncertainty, nobody knows in what direction the service is headed or how it will be financed or manned. There are too many people involved here, to wit the entire population, to be fobbed off with the inevitable "live, horse, and you'll get grass".
This Minister has only been there or a short time, but this Government has been there for the last seven years during which the service has deteriorated markedly, despite the expenditure of vast sums of money.
Nobody minding the ship, or we are all too important to do our jobs? Does this sum up relationships between the Ministers and the Department of Health?
If so and since I am in my biblical phase, I will have recourse to St Matthew again: "If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch." This would not bother me unduly were it not for the fact that the rest of us are stuck in there with them.
You will understand that I am about to relive my final year, and sit my final exams and I can do without the distractions noted above. I apologise, sometimes the anger takes over.
Dr Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon.