Heart Beat Maurice NeliganThomas Paine, author of the then almost revolutionary Rights of Man, wrote "to elect, and to reject is the prerogative of a free people".
I only say this to voice my own opinion that if you are not bothered to vote, then you are not entitled to crib about the outcome.
Remaining on electoral matters, it has been pointed out to me that the PDs have apparently put a fatwa on me.
Four of these hardy souls have had a go at me recently in the media, in missives ranging from the merely ludicrous to the scurrilous. It is no wonder that I fade away with the worry of it all!
Apart from Senator Minihan, none of these worthies actually avowed their membership of this very select group. This did not surprise me.
Incidentally while musing senatorially, I noted that a vacancy in this august body, caused by the untimely death of Senator Kate Walsh, was quickly filled by the Taoiseach nominating Colm O'Gorman, doubtless a most worthy man, who also happens to be the PD candidate for Wexford in the forthcoming election.
Not that there is any connection of course. His duties should not be too arduous, as the Senate is unlikely to meet during his tenure of office. I would not wish to be carping or ungenerous but could I gently inquire if this appointment is, to use the latest nonsensical spin phrase, "cost neutral"?
I am becoming ever more paranoid and am indeed taken by Andrew Grove of Intel's motto, "only the paranoid survive".
This time I felt seriously discommoded by my omission from the National Health Consultative Forum established by the Minister for Trolleys. This outfit was given statutory footing under the Health Act 2004 and is composed of 350 hand-picked ministerial appointees. That's going to be some independent body.
Many feel it exists only to deflect criticism of the system rather than to promote development and progress. In any case, is such a nakedly undemocratic body expected to bite the hand that bred and feeds it (cost neutral of course)?
It met in Kilkenny last October and held its meeting untrammelled by the presence of the public or media. There's accountability and transparency for you. There were the usual pious hopes of better things to come and the usual averted eyes and closed minds to the situation as it exists.
On this occasion, however, the guest speaker, Dr Gro Harlem Bruntland, one-time Norwegian premier and past secretary general of the WHO, chose, inadvertently I suppose, to rain on the Minister's parade.
She stated that she was strongly opposed to "proposed reforms which would inspire the development of a two-tier system with more room for privatisation". You won't be asked back Missus if by any mischance the Minister retains her position.
I note and welcome the fact that the main Opposition parties vehemently oppose the odious concept of co-location and have stated that they may revisit aspects of the Medical Practitioners Act, recently passed into law.
This Act establishes political control of the medical profession in a manner unmatched anywhere in the world. Actually that may be a sweeping statement; I am not too sure about North Korea.
A reader of this paper, writing from Co Kilkenny, took issue with me when I suggested that this control could have serious ethical consequences. He pointed out that in the Act such interference in ethical matters was specifically excluded.
I wondered how a gentleman from such a location who did not appear to be a doctor would be so conversant with this 116-page Bill. It was hardly likely to be a bestseller in the bookshops of Kilkenny.
For his information, as reported in the Irish Medical Times (February 23rd, 2007), the Minister has indeed written to the Medical Council on ethical issues. What issues you may wonder - pro-life or maybe pro-choice, stem cell research possibly, advanced directives for end of life, euthanasia or any one of countless real ethical problems? No, it was none of these.
She wrote about a far more pressing matter and asked the Medical Council to examine ethical issues that had arisen concerning groups of doctors having pharmacies located within a one-stop medical group, that might also include physiotherapy, radiology, etc. I kid you not.
She had received complaints on the ethical issues involved relating to certain people prescribing on their own behalf or presumably to their own benefit. This surprised me as surely the Minister could have received advice from Minister of State Tim O'Malley, himself a pharmacist, or indeed from Senator Minihan, also with interest in this area, as to the absurdity of this particular intervention.
In these days of probity, when codes of conduct frown on doctors receiving pens and notepads and, God forefend, hospitality from pharmaceutical firms, it is refreshing to note that the Minister's colleague and party leader has just introduced legislation to curb donations to politicians.
As I understand it, a politician can receive up to €2,000 from an individual without need for a declaration; no favours are to be given in return, it goes without saying. One law for us, one law for them.
Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon.