Ireland- Embarassing u-turn by Government on schools water rates

Fine Gael Education Spokesman, Brian Hayes TD, has described as embarrassing the u-turn by Mary Hanafin on school water charges saying that he welcomes her belated recognition that schools shouldn't pay these charges until the crisis is sorted out. He said that the latest climb down is a fine example of Ballymagash politics.

Under the Government proposals primary schools were classed as "businesses" so they could be charged water rates.Yet schools neither manufacture nor sell goods or services for profit, nor register for VAT. The groundswell of opposition nation wide spearheaded by FG Labour and the INTO has finally shaken the Government out of its lethargy. It is probably safe to assume that Government proposals have been sufficiently neutered to ensure that the flat rate -now proposed by Bertie Ahern- will be of minor significance. It is estimated that under the original proposals up to €10 million would have been paid by a national school system which is already grossly underfunded.

This Government has become increasingly accident prone. The opposition has already scored direct hits on the cancer care crisis and now on the schools water rates issue and on the childcare subvention scheme which also saw a Government u-turn today. In times of economic boom the Government could increase public expenditure to smooth the sensibilities of the electorate. Public expenditure has increased in 2007 by 13%. This was sufficient to mollify a sizeable segment of the electorate.

Now however The FF/Green /PD Government is hoist by its own petard. The chickens are coming home to roost. Efforts to curb public expenditure and to impose stealth taxes will inevitably result in more serious political miscalculations.

Eoghan Harris-an FF/PD apologist

Eoghan Harris is no mean exponent of the pen. Unfortunately his political analysis leaves much to be desired. In his Sunday Independent column he is prepared to defend the indefensible if necessary as he strives to promote the Governments record on Health. He is rapidly developing into a political apologist for the FF/PD Government. Come back Pravda. All is forgiven.

In the Irish context he states that Mary Hanafin, Beverly Flynn and Mary Harney are courageous politicians. Interestingly all three are from the FF gene pool. He mentions Hillary Clinton. Obviously Harris knows very little about "Hillarycare." In the words of Mitt Romney: "She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything."

He then denigrates Dr James Reilly (FG). He conveniently omits to state that FG health spokesman, Dr James Reilly put down the question -at the Oireachtas Health Committee meeting- which elicited the response that 97 women who had breast ultrasounds at Portlaoise Hospital were to be recalled for surgical review. Harris should listen to James Reilly. He might actually learn something about the reality of life for women suffering from breast cancer.

He raises the issue of bi-partisanship on the health issue. The Government has a 13 seat majority(including Ned O Keeffe). Is this not sufficient to reform the Health Service? No Harris is concerned to protect the Government from flak ensuing from unpopular decisions in the Health Service. The Harris motto is: Tie in the opposition parties and insulate the Government.

There is now a strong opposition. It is the duty of the opposition to ask the hard questions. This is a sine qua non if our democracy is to flourish.

The last FF /PD Government -with Mary Harney as Minister for Health-established the HSE. It is a bureaucratic monster that is gobbling up valuable financial resources but cutting back on front line services. In the words of Harris : " Harney is fighting the good fight". Unfortunately this is of little benefit to seriously ill patients. Eoghan Harris needs to wake up and smell the coffee.