The Midlands Health Board is proposing to transfer a cancer treatment unit from Portlaoise General Hospital to Tullamore General Hospital.
It so happens that Tullamore is the home base of the current Minister for Health, Brian Cowen, leading some cynics to smell a rat. Among those not smelling a rate is the Portlaoise-based Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan. "I would be the first to attack him but in fairness I do not see the Minister's hand in this," he says. "The report which recommends the transfer was commissioned before he became Minister." Such unusual political courtesy may be due to the fact that both Cowen and Flanagan recently became fathers of baby daughters. "If we look a little bleary-eyed nowadays," says Flanagan, "it won't be from spending our nights in smoke-filled rooms."