Is the health minister’s job radioactive?

Many of us have heard of the alleged line of John Reid when Tony Blair gave him the job of Secretary of State for Health: “Oh f*ck, not health”.  One might think the job warrants the same reaction in Ireland.  And yet while the job is no doubt difficult (and Mary Harney looks just plain tired the last few days), memories are short.  Quick question: who was Bertie’s first minister for health?

A packet of smarties to the person who said “Brian Cowen”.  1997-2000, and from there to the so-called great portfolios of state, Foreign Affairs and Finance.   On then to the era of Micheál Martin. 

In contrast to the difficulty of recalling any event from the Cowen era, Martin at least laid the groundwork for the present HSE — which is not necessarily a criticism, since something had to be done to unify the balkanised healthcare system that existed before that.  But events have shown that whatever the intention, the HSE became a graft of further layers of management onto the existing system, and a continued system of budgetary control that simply consisted of paying for services until the money runs out.  No restructuring, no long-term planning. 

One time bomb left by Martin for Mary Harney was the illegal withholding of fees for nursing homes, which blew up in 2005.  I suspect many of us have forgotten that one, but the image of a minister (and his junior ministers, and his program managers) not having a clue what was going on under the noses will ring true today.  He now sits as minister for enterprise, trade, and employment — probably the top junketing job in the Cabinet, although looking to be more of a headache now as job losses could become a serious issue.  But no evidence that his career was irrevocably damaged by what went on at health.

And now Mary Harney, long enough in the job to be not able to pass the buck (but note that Martin is implicated in an unimplemented promise to improve diagnostic services in Portlaoise), and about to be a party of one in the Dail (with rumours that Noel Grealish is leaving), and who must feel that she could have a quieter life.  

On the one hand, one might feel that if she went, Bertie would have trouble filling the job.   But given the lack of long-term career consequences for poor performance in the ministry, maybe one of the rising stars would be up for it.  They might feel that with perceptions so bad, it’s a job with good upside potential.   But in a better world, we might be asking what Brian Cowen and Micheál Martin did in their not insubstantial stints there.