Never work with children or animals

If there is a prize for political naivete, it should go to Tim O’Malley. He should have realised how rash it is for any Limerick politician to read scripts that are prepared for them by officials of the Department of Health. Look what happened to Michael Noonan. His political career nose-dived after some highly insulting remarks he made in the Dail.

No doubt the people who wrote Noonan’s hurtful little diatribe are still in their jobs. They have probably been promoted and given even more nauseating titles—something like Senior Masturbation Officers—in the same way all those officials responsible for “system failures” in the health service are protected from any type of censure. They know this, and emboldened by the moral hazard of the senior bureaucrat they also know that their political “masters” come and go, yet they remain. Give the ministers the mushroom treatment; keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em shit. And because they will read anything that’s put in front of them, you can chortle to your hearts’ content as they make assholes of themselves either in the Dail or on Prime Time, and then piss yourself with mirth as they writhe helplessly in the inevitable public backlash. Sure, they may even lose their seats at the next election, but hey, that’s not your problem. They went in with their eyes and their flies wide open. Nobody had a gun to their heads, so to speak, to read the stuff.

Tim O’Malley’s remarks were not worthy of a government minister, though they were worthy of a member of the PDs—blame someone, anyone—for the mess you’ve overseen. I’m surprised he couldn’t have commented that the waiting lists were the result of the unfair tax regime in the country which seeks to penalise effort, etc., etc.

One comment by O’Malley deserves further exploration, though. He attempted to defend the lack of progress in provision of better mental health by claiming he’d only been in the job for four years. This should not be dismissed out of hand but rather seen as the plea of frustration and defeatism that it is. Four years is nothing when it comes to effecting reform of the health service. That takes decades, probably centuries. And the only reforms that the Health Service Executive and Department of Health officials are interested in making are the ones that must inevitably follow from the realisation that the Irish health service’s problems are caused by sick people. The whole system is plagued by them, millions are spent and hours wasted, having to provide for these people with their unreasonable demands for treatment, and not just an old band-aid either but hospital care, though hospitals are nice places with extensive office spaces where you can hide and meeting rooms where you can pretend to attend endless meetings. These are usually provided through ward closures so there is light at the end of the catheter. Minister Harney has hinted at the need for this but knows that to admit too much would be to commit political suicide.

O’Malley deserves a good, kick in the pants, but what would it serve to sack him? His stand is the product of a—excuse the pun—sick system. He could be replaced by some other politician, maybe another eegit from Limerick who could be trusted to swallow whatever rubbish is placed in front of him.