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FF/PD abuse of power
Read more about: Fianna Fail, Health, Progressive Democrats
JJCarroll of Semper Idem reports on a post on Politics.ie that says that the when you contact the HSE about medical cards they refer you to a website owned by the PD’s and including Fianna Fail and PD logos. www.medicalcard.ie This is a very dodgy abuse of position if this is a policy but if this is merely a political website that the HSE is using instead of coming up with its own information source is a bad indictment of the HSE. Not sure if the papers have picked up on this. But they will but remember you heard it hear first. (Unless of course you read it somewhere else before.).
What is more remarkable is that the government and the HSE appear to see nothing obviously wrong in referring to a party political site. Or indeed that the site appears to claim to have information that the HSE itself doesn’t yet know.
Also, the site is registered by the PDs but has the FF and PD logos. I wonder how FFers feel about this.
This site is featured prominently in the right sidebar of Fianna Fáil’s website.
Is it any different from Fine Gael candidates providing leaflets to constituents detailing tiher welfare entitlements? That’s a service I’ve found useful in the past, though I would have been surprised had Apollo House referred me to Fine Gael HQ for information on my entitlements.
It is different in that I doubt citizens advice offices or the HSE will be telling people in person or on the phone to go home and check their FG leaflet for the information. Indeed, it parallels a practice of civil servants telling people on the phone to contact TD or public rep X when that person X is a member of a particular political party. In effect it is electioneering by public servants during office hours.
Fact is that in the example you mention of “Is it any different from Fine Gael candidates providing leaflets to constituents detailing tiher welfare entitlements? That’s a service I’ve found useful in the past, though I would have been surprised had Apollo House referred me to Fine Gael HQ for information on my entitlements.” it is the FG candidates distributing information that is in the public domain in the publics interest to know about, in the example in this story it is taxpaid civil servants directing people and in effect distributing that information with the party logo on it.
Dan,
That is why I wrote that ‘I would have been surprised had Apollo House referred me to Fine Gael HQ for information on my entitlements.’
However, given that it is the HSE itself which decides on Medical Card applications, it is indeed good that they refer enquiries on to some other agency — Citizen Information Service would be the obvious one.
Medical cards have been the national election bribe for decades. This just moves it up into the 21st century.