Election Diary 25.05.09
Have had my head buried deaply in the Ryan Report for the past few days and should have a post on what the report did say about the Institute in Glin, and what the report failed to cover. Hence the absence in posts.
So here is what has been going down in the last couple of days:
- I am assured of an interview with one of the Fianna Fail candidates later in the week, will have more on that in due course. It will be the first ever Fianna Failler to give us an interview in almost four years of blogging, Other interviews in the works are Labour Euro candidate Alan Kelly, Green candidate Dan Boyle, and Sinn Fein candidate Toireasa Ferris. the latter three are ones I am working on. Neither Brian Crowley (FF) or Kathy Sinnott (Independent) have responded to a request for interview.
- More dirty tricks aboud concerning, this time, independent candidate, Lilly Wallace. It looks as though someone used one of those online anonymiser e-mail services and sent out a fake press release criticising the new LGBT cafe which opened in Limerick this week. Ms Wallace wanted to assure those that the mail did not come from her, and that she wasn’t even aware of the existance of the Cafe. According to the Limerick Leader, Councillor Maria Byrne had her voicemail hacked in 2004, and the perpatrators replaced her greeting with laughing, belching, and foul language. There was a nasty comment in our moderation queue on Friday concerning the LGBT cafe, which I marked as spam so it looks like there was a keyboard warrior on a crucade during the weekend. Related Limerick Leader Story
- Labour’s Tom Shortt was receiving support from his entertainer brother Pat whilst campaigning on Saturday morning in Limerick City. Both posed for photographs at the new skatepark on Steamboat quay. Tom Shortt is running in the City North electoral Ward. Picture here.
Unedited releases received today are below the fold:
Sinn Fein (Local) Received 1223 hrs
Richard Young Sinn Féin Candidate for the Kilmallock Electoral area says: “Rural Gardaí due in many cases to a lack of resources have their hands tied in the fight against crime in many parts of rural County Limerick. As in past recessionary times crime and antisocial behaviour have risen in line with high levels of unemployment. With the added pressure of the closure of many rural Garda stations. Gardaí are under enormous amount strain to tackle crime in our rural communities. Also with the government’s embargo on Garda recruitment and promotions, more Gardaí are feeling helpless in the fight against crime. This is also leading experienced senior Garda to retire early, due to the lack of support they are getting from central government.”
“People are also fearful that due to increased numbers of Gardaí in Limerick City many criminal gangs have turned their attention and are operating more in rural communities where they feel there is less of a chance of detection. A lot of crime and antisocial behaviour in the rural communities is not being reported as people feel their calls are not getting the attention they deserve.”
Young says: “In the last few weeks I have attended residents meetings who wished to express their concern about various incidents of crime and antisocial behaviour in their areas, and what they felt was the inaction that was been taken against the perpetrators.”
Young called to a number of local Garda stations to enquire on behalf of the residents affected. “Gardaí were on the whole very helpful and were taking all reports serious, but with very limited man hours and the wide areas many individual Gardaí have to cover it proves very difficult to tackle every issue thoroughly.”
Young acknowledges the enormous work load on all Gardaí and urges “people in rural communities in conjunction with local Garda to set up residents and community alert committees which will help address issues that can be highlighted before they get out of control. Young said “both he and Sinn Féin are also available to help set up action groups in areas affected by these issues.” Mr Young also: “Encourages everybody to use Dial to Stop Drug Dealing to stop the scourge of drugs in our county.”
Independent (Europe) Received 1229 hrs
“The HSE is outsourcing mammogram services to the UK. Lives are being put at risk and jobs lost,” Kathy Sinnott Independent MEP for Munster told demonstrators on Saturday 23rd outside Kerry General Hospital.
Dr. Brigid O’Brien explained to the hundreds of demonstrators, mostly women, that the state of the art breast cancer screening equipment fundraised by local Kerry community groups is being displaced by less accurate equipment owned and run by a UK company who has been given the contract for all breast cancer screening services in Ireland. These digitalized machines allow all tests to be processed and analysed in the UK. This means that not only are we losing jobs but Irish radiologists will lose the skills to interpret mammograms, a vital part of breast cancer management.
Kathy Sinnott a member of the Health Working Group in the European Parliament put her objections on record, saying, “This policy is crazy. We talk about our highly skilled knowledge based work force and then we take hundreds and eventually thousands of jobs out of Ireland. Will we see the day when Irish science graduates will have to emigrate to get jobs processing Irish lab tests? In a few years of outsourcing, will our medical professionals be out of practice in performing, processing and analyzing existing tests and be unfamiliar with new types of testing. Will we even have the expertise in Ireland to train lab scientists in this country?”
“Although the HSE has always sent some highly specialised and infrequently used lab tests to be performed in laboratories outside Ireland, it is increasingly outsourcing routine, high volume testing to other countries. The privitisation of medical tests, affects the methodology and quality of testing as companies must consider costs and profits in deciding lab protocols. The delays caused by outsourcing to distant labs affect the quality of the test samples and the accuracy of the tests and at the same time causes undue anxiety to people awaiting results,” added Mrs. Sinnott, a member of the Public Health Committee and a member of MAC (MEPs Against Cancer).
“Minister Harney and Professor Drumm are taking risks with peoples’ health with this policy of outsourcing and are also putting hundreds and soon thousands of Irish scientists and lab technicians on the dole.”
Mrs. Sinnott attended the public march at 11.30am on Saturday 23rd May from the new HSE buildings at Kerry General Hospital to Tralee Town Centre to raise awareness to save local health services including the publicly funded mammogram machine at Kerry General Hospital.
Sinn Fein (Local) Received1406 hrs
Sinn Féin North Ward Election Candidate Maurice Quinlivan has declared that blood testing services now face a possible crisis in Limerick City following the closure of such services at St Johns Hospital. He is calling for the immediate reinstatement of blood testing at St Johns hospital and the guaranteeing of services at the regional hospital.
The HSE has confirmed the closure of the blood testing clinic at St Johns from Tuesday next the 2nd of June.
Quinlivan said: “The HSE must now reassure the public that unlike last year blood testing at the regional will not be suspended over the summer and will operate normally especially after the closure announcement from St. Johns.”
“Patients can now expect to wait months to get the result of what should be a routine blood test thanks to these further cutbacks. Indeed there is now a high probability that there could be no provision of blood testing service through the summer months ahead. Therefore as well as having blood testing resumed in St Johns I am demanding that the HSE guarantee that there will be no curtailment to services as happened at the regional hospital last summer. It seems as if the impact on vulnerable patients simply does not matter to the bean counters in charge of our so called Health Service.”
Quinlivan then went on to detail the possible impact on services.
“I have been reliably informed by HSE staff that they fear a range of blood testing services will be suspended for the summer months as happened last year. This they believe will include testing for routine auto-immune screens such as ANA and lupus, microscopy diagnostic services, histology and thyroid functioning.”
Quinlivan has called on HSE management to guarantee that adequate additional staffing will be put in place at the regional Hospital blood clinic to ensure the maintenance of services to the public.
“The result of this closure will be a significant deterioration in blood testing services for patients in Limerick City. Many vulnerable patients including the elderly and frail, who relied on the local service at St Johns may now have to wait several months for a routine blood test result. The blood testing clinic at the regional like all other departments there is already under severe pressure. The result of this closure will be serious delays. It is not an exaggeration to say that this may put patient’s lives at risk.”
“I am therefore calling on the HSE management as an interim measure pending the resumption of blood testing at St Johns to ensure additional resources are put in place at the regional hospital in order to ensure patient safety.”
“It is absolute disgrace that taxpayers funds can be found to develop the private health sector at a time when public services are being decimated by government cutbacks.” Críoch