Heartbeat:Those unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity and virtue; of teaching Ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities and eminent services, etc and of choosing for employment persons qualified to exercise them - Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726; A voyage to Laputa
The words of the good dean came to mind as I followed the exciting race to fill the senate seats so vital to our nation's welfare. Our founding fathers in their idealism, and indeed innocence, had proposed a vocational body that would add a leaven of gravitas and experience to the wider franchise of the Dáil.
In their wisdom they decreed university representation, obviously entertaining some mad notion that such senators might bring forward the fruits of such education for the benefit of their fellow citizens. Similarly, it was ordained that some could be appointed to the august body as possessing particular merits, experience and qualifications. In other words they were akin to the good people of Laputa; they had this fanciful idea of a meritocracy.
How things have turned out otherwise; handily disproving the proverb that "a good beginning makes a good ending". The latest Caliguline machinations strengthen my belief that the senate, as presently constituted, elected or appointed, serves no useful purpose and is an expensive anachronism.
With the exception of the university senators, it is merely an appendage of the political parties, all pretence of special expertise and vocational calling, long abandoned.
Indeed, an effort was made during the last election to have the political character of this charade extended to the university seats: "Bertie just likes me, but really I'm independent." Happily it fooled nobody and our academic institutions, virtually alone, provide the few flickering embers of the original ideals.
I am sure that anybody reading this can think of better ways of spending money rather than on this functionless body. In this matter I think the politicians may be losing touch with the electorate. I refer again to the dean: "It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee house for the voice of the kingdom." Many will recognise this, bowdlerised and unattributed as "Dublin 4 isn't all Ireland".
I spend a lot of my time in the southwest of the country and I know how important the services of Shannon airport are to this area and to the midwest.
The recent Aer Lingus decision to withdraw the Shannon-London, Heathrow service seems both inexplicable and morally unjustifiable. I could understand if the service was losing money but apparently this is not the case.
Even was it so there are other considerations than just profit. There are responsibilities to the companies in the area, their thousands of employees and their dependents. We are already seeing consequential suspension of construction projects in the tourist industry and warnings from companies that it is becoming increasingly harder to do business in this State. Do we have to make it harder still by unsustainable decisions like this? Private is good, public is bad, is not a universally accepted precept in a caring society.
We have seen this before in the debacle over Eircom which to this day continues to disadvantage peripheral regions by the failure to roll out broadband. We see it in the thoughtless and ill-planned attempts to privatise our health services. Are we committed to profit before people? I don't recall any mandate for that. The interests of the shareholders of Aer Lingus do not come before the interests of the people. All the fine talk of hubs and gateways, all the fine talk about decentralisation, is rendered farcical by decisions like these.
In our neighbouring island the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, cut short his holiday to deal with the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. I suggest that the Taoiseach might follow his example and let himself and his ministers become involved in this serious situation, right now. All this talk about the independence of the company and the problems of becoming involved are shown to be so much hot air by the speed with which they got involved to prevent Ryanair taking a controlling interest in the company. Cui bono, in this decision, the people or the profit takers?
A columnist in this newspaper, Mary Raftery, sees dangers in the merger of the Mater and St Vincent's hospitals with the medical school of UCD. Doubtless there are some concerns for the reasons she postulates but none I would feel that could not be overcome by common sense and goodwill.
Many of the greatest hospitals in the world were religious foundations, at times when states were unable to provide for their people. I would not concede for one moment that such hospitals are in any way inferior to their State-run counterparts. There are many progressive and caring religious whose involvement in healthcare continues their forebears' tradition, in selfless involvement in the patient interest.
From student days through my years of consultant responsibility, I had hoped to see such a development and rationalisation. I feel it can only benefit Irish medicine and the Irish people.
Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon.