Longford Leader columnist Mattie Fox: An ominous indication of things to come
Stephen Donnelly is a most impressive parliamentarian and has the intelligence to tackle the Health Service.
So it was disappointing to hear him say, quite recently, that nurses were as well paid as any of the countries in Europe. Not true.
This was the first example of him refusing to answer the question, and instead answering his own question!
What he had actually been asked, in effect, was what he was going to do, as Minister, for the health service. A simple question.
He took the opportunity to score points, as he saw it, and to set down a marker.
He seems to forget the fact that one of the things that nurses organisations want, is for the HSE to hire more staff and make hospitals more efficient. With skeleton staff - which is how I’d describe how the health service is run - no hospital can achieve that basic, simple rule: efficiency.
Minister Donnelly was very disappointed to engage a diversionary tactic, instead of answering honestly.
A golden opportunity to demonstrate the difference he had promised, instead he became a rerun of Simon Harris, mark 2.
This interview was an ominous indication of things to come. Obviously, one thing he is not going to do, or maybe he is not going to be allowed to, is employ more consultants and nurses.
Only time will tell if that is the case, but if it is, then he is failing at the very first hurdle.