Seanad debates

Wednesday, 2 March 2005

10:30 am

Photo of Brendan RyanBrendan Ryan (Labour)

I agree that the extraordinary role of the sisters of Mr. Robert McCartney will reverberate through the peace process in future. I hope a rapid outcome will be reached which will keep them happy. What they have done has changed the perception of many. Their role has opened our eyes and changed the view of the world on what is really happening in the name of defending communities. This matter will never return to a box of silence.

Last week the Government announced it would refund a large sum of money to those who had been illegally charged for services in publicly funded old people's residential units. As a result, the Health Service Executive set up a helpline. Some HSE staff are paid salaries in excess of the Taoiseach's salary because they are allegedly super efficient. However, the HSE cannot run a telephone line. It had two opportunities to do so and failed on each occasion. Where is the efficiency in the Health Service Executive if it cannot operate a helpline which works? Even when it knew it had got it wrong and tried to fix the problem, it failed. This episode is a poor augury for the future of the health service.

I draw Senators' attention to a matter with which the Leader will be familiar. Following the Order of Business, I and other Members will attend a private meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs attended by the ambassador of the United States. It will be held in private at the ambassador's insistence. The reason I raise the matter in the House is that it will not be reported if I mention it elsewhere. I have met most of the ambassadors who have appeared before either the Committee on European Affairs or the Committee on Foreign Affairs. They have represented various regimes of varying colours of democracy but not one of them has ever insisted that the whole meeting be conducted in private. It is astonishing that the official representative in this State of a country which is launching a crusade to expand democracy and freedom around the world will only talk to Members of our Parliament in private.

I draw Senators' attention to the decision of the IFA to appoint a full-time lobbyist. Having served in the House for 20 years, I thought the organisation had many full-time lobbyists here. If I was a member of either of the two larger parties in the House, I would start to worry because it is clear they have badly let down the IFA when it decides to pay some of its hard earned cash to have Members lobbied instead.

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