WHO’s treatment of Dr Mike Ryan proves to be a shocking case study

Story of the Week

Three months after the Government was formed, the Oireachtas finally got down to full business this week when the membership of the committees (all 28 of them) was selected and they began their work.

You got a sense that all the shadowboxing and straw man displays over process since late January have finally subsided and our national parliamentarians can now grapple with the real and pressing issues that touch upon our lives.

The dominant matter this week was undoubtedly another growing scandal, over unnecessary hip surgeries carried out on children. Shauna Bowers and Marie O’Halloran reported on Tuesday that the look-back on operations carried out under the auspices of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is now extending back to 2010.

Last July, it was announced that an independent review into hip surgeries in children would be carried out to examine if the developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) surgery was required in all cases.

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That review is looking at a random, anonymised sample of DDH surgeries between 2021 and 2023 at CHI hospital sites, as well as the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Cappagh.

Its publication is imminent, but there have already been sharp exchanges on the issue in the Dáil. Taoiseach Micheál Martin repeated the line that we must be patient and wait for the outcome. That did not stop continued pressure from the Opposition, not least Sinn Féin, which has led the charge. Miriam Lord’s column gives a flavour of the exchanges.

This matter will put the spotlight on Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and could be the first big test of her stewardship of the department. Cormac McQuinn has another interesting take on it this morning, with a report that discloses that former CEO of CHI, Eilish Hardiman, has retained her salary of circa €184,000 in her new role in the agency.

Bust Up

Minister for Housing James Browne has not had a great few weeks of it. First of all, his preferred candidate as new housing tsar, Brendan McDonagh, withdrew his name after controversy arose about his salary levels.

Now this week, the not-quite beleaguered (but not far away) Minister found himself at the wrong end of a row with the Lord Mayor of Dublin Emma Blain.

Over the past two years, the Government has allocated €1.5 billion each year to local authorities to buy houses from landlords who are selling up. The arrangement means the tenants can stay in situ and the council becomes the new landlord.

The scheme has been popular, especially in Dublin where the city council was one of its biggest users. However, there is uncertainty over its future funding. At a meeting where the impact of the scheme in preventing homelessness was highlighted, councillors agreed that the Lord Mayor write to Browne to seek a meeting on it.

Well, what happened next? It was, to quote the great Joe Higgins, like playing handball against a haystack. Three times Blain wrote to the Minister asking for a meeting. Finally, on the third go, she got a one-line reply from an assistant to Mr Browne turning down her request. To add insult to injury, the email addressed her as “Dear Emma” rather than her formal title as Lord Mayor.

Blain then escalated the matter and wrote to the Taoiseach highlighting her unhappiness at the snub, which she said was a “blanket refusal”, compounded by the failure to recognise her status.

Soon afterwards, the Minister indicated that his office would set up a meeting with Ms Blain.

That’s all very well but does any of this affect me?

A global forum featuring famous world leaders took place in Ireland last week that almost passed without notice. The difference was that it was the political equivalent of social hurling.

For it was comprised of retired leaders, all of whom still have a lot to say.

It was the 39th annual plenary meeting of the InterAction Council, an annual gathering of former heads of state and government.

It was co-chaired by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and was addressed by 15 former leaders, who tackled some of the world’s most urgent geopolitical, technological, economic and humanitarian challenges.

In his speech, Ahern appealed to governments across the world to hold on to the principle of global multilateralism.

He also criticised the protectionist policies of the US, under the presidency of Donald Trump.

“There is a necessity to try to not lose multilateralism and try to keep the world order, the international institutions that were set after the second World War and have stood us well over so many years,” he said afterwards.

“I don’t expect Donald Trump or his administration to listen to me but my plea is, please don’t throw out all those institutions which have been of such enormous benefit to the world,” he said.

His co-chair was Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria. Other former leaders in attendance included the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko; former Serbian president Boris Tadić; Jean Chrétien (Canada); Peter Medgyessy (Hungary); Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia); Yves Leterme (Belgium); Margaret Jay (United Kingdom); and Essam Sharaf (Egypt).

Banana Skin

The thing about a routine reshuffle is that they are never routine. When the Social Democrats announced on Thursday that the party was doing a mini-reshuffle of its front bench, it spawned dozens of theories, all screaming “trouble at mill”.

Sinead Gibney had been the party’s spokeswoman on foreign affairs but was being moved over to become the spokeswoman on media, arts, culture, Gaeltacht and another half a dozen responsibilities. The Kilkenny-based Senator Patricia Stephenson was becoming the spokeswoman on foreign affairs.

There has been tension within the parliamentary party on the status of Eoin Hayes. The Dublin Bay South TD has been suspended from the party after giving conflicting explanations on how he had disposed of shares in Palantir, a US company which has supplied military technology to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Hayes has been in Coventry since early December and there are some within the parliamentary party who want him to be brought back into the fold. However, there are a small number of holdouts on the issue, one of whom is understood to be Gibney.

When the announcement was made, some people assumed the two things were connected. There were even rumours floating around on Thursday (completely untrue) of rows and people being on the verge of resignation.

Not so, insisted the party. The party has a policy of aligning its spokespeople with the Oireachtas committee of which they are a member. It was waiting to see if Stephenson, a former diplomat, could get a seat on the foreign affairs committee. Once she did, she was offered that portfolio. Gibney, a member of the media and culture committee, moved over there (it’s an area where she also has extensive experience).

Both were happy with the news. Nothing to see here. Still a banana skin though. Especially as the Eoin Hayes question has not yet been settled.

Winners and Losers

Winner: Who worries about Emmy when we have Oscar Despard, the 22-year-old from Dublin, who captained the Cambridge team to victory in BBC’s University Challenge. Indeed, our very own Northern Editor Freya McClements was the last winning Irish captain, with the Magdalen College, Oxford, team that won in 2004. Hold on a minute, you might say. Young Oscar is not a politician. To which we say, not yet.

Loser: Dr Mike Ryan. A massive hero for Irish people everywhere, the deputy director of the World Health Organisation has been surprisingly dropped from its executive in a cost-cutting exercise.

The removal of US funding has compromised the organisation but the decision to cut out Ryan – a genuine world authority on fighting epidemics and infectious diseases, including Covid-19, and a fearless advocate of fairness and against injustice – was truly shocking. His spontaneous and angry plea on behalf of the children of Gaza at a routine press conference several weeks ago reflected his strengths, braveness and humanity. (See video of his comments here)