Madam, – I have some personal experience of cystic fibrosis, from family and friends who have the disease. Having had a cousin die from complications around cystic fibrosis (CF) and having another (his sister) who has recently had a lung transplant on foot of the same disease (in Australia, where she and her family now live) and who is doing excellently, I have always followed the tales and tribulations of Orla Tinsley (Opinion, June 25th) with some interest.
It beggars belief, until one thinks of the priorities of the Irish State, that in 2010, in the country with the highest rate of CF in the world, we still do not have a dedicated CF unit. When one thinks about it, however, what Ms Tinsley and her compatriots forget is that they are less important than badgers, beagles, barmen or bondholders.
The Green Party is very pro-animals: it loves them, neither in a deviant nor a lightly sautéed manner. As part of the discussions on supporting Nama (the quango that gives on taking) and its ramifications there was a general view among Green Party members to whom I spoke that there were a large number of “fundies” who would vote for whatever the Green Party leadership proposed so long as our furry/feathered friends were further protected. Nama, let us recall, overpays the banks (saving the share and bondholders) for their toxic loans.
It was fully supported by the Green Party. Untold billions were spent that need not have been, billions the taxpayer now no longer has to spend on health care.
Irish CF sufferers have a lifespan two-thirds that of CF sufferers in the other jurisdiction on this island. This, of course, is nothing to do with these people with compromised lungs and stressed immune systems sharing the wretchedly unhygienic common wards of modern Irish health care, a system that is under the aegis of a Green Party government. Perhaps if CF sufferers were to grow fur the Green Party would look on their plight more kindly.
Beagles are also important for the other party of Government. More Fianna Fáil backbenchers turned up to the committee discussions on the Dog Breeding Bill, and more time was spent by them in the Dáil discussing this, than on the respective deliberations on Nama. A party that approved without a murmur the tens and tens of billions to be flung onto the bonfire of vanities that is Anglo (money that probably could eliminate CF if deployed to genetic research) gets all exercised about dogs. Beagles trump bleeding infected lungs. As for barmen, the notion that the right to live trumps the right to get scuttered and then drive off is something that seems to be alien to many Fianna Fáil backbenchers.
The Irish political system is rotten to the core if it can allow this issue to continue. As Ms Tinsley states, the CF sufferers are not looking for gold-plated oxygen tanks. All they want is that we as a State show some care.
How many of the backbenchers now getting exercised about the Ward Union hunt will show a modicum of moral courage and state that this is a line in the sand, and unless the Minister for Health (if she can be found) gets the Cabinet to commit to this long overdue requirement they will withdraw their support for the Government? The answer is, of course, none. A spine and a moral compass that extends beyond the next election would be required for that. – Yours, etc,