A Chara, - The Government's cynical decision to hold a special cabinet meeting on the Health Service deserves only one response from the electorate: a pounding.
Presiding over a healthcare system which is obnoxiously unfair, the government decides it can achieve two aims at once. But neither of these has anything to do with health: one is to make big of the region devastated by foot and mouth; the other is to stage an exercise in pre-election PR.
Those who are galled and insulted by this cheap ploy will save their disgust for polling day; those who have suffered for months waiting for treatment which can be bought in a day will vent their anger via the ballot box; and those who are lying on trolleys in the bustling corridors of A and E units will avenge their maltreatment if they live to the next election. - Yours, etc.,
Ciaran Mac Aonghusa, Baile an tSratha, Tir Chonaill.