Still crimson with embarrassment over a social media video from the Department of Housing, the Coalition was plunged into another storm over the imposition of a potential €50 charge for the issuing of medical blister packs.
Let’s first deal with the video. It was hastily taken down following “feedback” from those who featured in it. A gale of derision from the opposition for it being “tone-deaf” played a part.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the film was a “move beyond satire”. Housing Minister James Browne accepted his department was “misconceived” in sharing the video. Defending it, Taoiseach Micheál Martin had insisted there is a need to “avoid knee-jerk reactions to genuine initiatives”. Knee-jerk or not, wiser counsel prevailed and it was “disappeared” at whiplash speed.
With his head ringing from one completely avoidable skirmish, Mr Martin was taking fire for another.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty had him in his sights over the new HSE charge. He told the Taoiseach: “It’s like you can’t stop yourself from making life harder for people.
“You’re putting huge stress on elderly people during the Christmas period, when they know now that they’re going to have to face these charges come January.”
The Government will interrogate this again, with the HSE and others
Labour health spokeswoman Marie Sherlock was just as scathing, suggesting that not putting a blister pack service in place was a “recipe for confusion”. The medication is divided into daily doses, something that is essential for some of our most vulnerable people.
Mr Martin was soon conceding, saying: “The Government will interrogate this again, with the HSE and others.” It seems the Groucho Marx aphorism that “politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”, can still find an echo in our corridors of power.
Just last week we heard that the completion of the National Children’s Hospital is to be delayed again. This is the 16th time the deadline has been missed. Its estimated cost in 2016 was €987m. It is now €2.2bn.
If there are open-ended envelopes of money for such contingencies, many may well wonder how people entirely dependent on the help of the pharmacy-prepared packs can be left out of the picture?
Mr Martin explained that the State had never agreed to pay for “monitored dosing systems”.
He also noted that while Mr Doherty was a finance spokesman, the Sinn Féin TD wanted the Government to pay for everything and at the same time, slates the Government about out-of-control costs.
Being in opposition allows one to criticise without having responsibility for tough decisions.
But surely it’s a no-brainer to make sure the ill get the right medicine, otherwise they will pay with their health.
It’s long been said that the soul of a state can best be reflected in how it treats its young and its elderly.
