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What you want to say – 30 January 2019 January 30, 2019

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. EWI - January 30, 2019

So, how did Bacik’s event on the DP go the other Saturday?

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - February 1, 2019

Presumably you mean the joint gathering of ILHS & LP in the Gresham on 19’01?
If so, I can say that Bacik’s intervention was not the high point. However, the weakest one, the nadir, was Jack Conner’s ego trip which went on long enough to block any q & a session. His piece of political strip tease was applauded hysterically by the LP hacks present: too many of them tend to see the Society as a sub-committee of their sect. Happily, the committee (altho’ full of their comrades) does not agree, and it will be remembered.

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EWI - February 3, 2019

His piece of political strip tease was applauded hysterically by the LP hacks present: too many of them tend to see the Society as a sub-committee of their sect. Happily, the committee (altho’ full of their comrades) does not agree, and it will be remembered.

Thanks, Raynor.

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2. EWI - January 30, 2019

The AOC effect: unapologetically moving the Overton Window.

https://twitter.com/misselliemae/status/1090217105797074944?s=21

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makedoanmend - January 30, 2019

Thanks EWI. powerful stuff.

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GW - January 30, 2019

This is more a Sign of Hope which I keep forgetting – but the impression this Davos made was longer the masters of the universe meeting, but clueless class who have no answers other than discredited Bozo-esque charity.

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EWI - February 3, 2019

other than discredited Bono-esque charity.

FTFY

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3. GW - January 30, 2019

Great to see Irish nurses and midwifes out on strike.

Tax the rich and the corporations adequately, double their wages and employ more of them!

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4. makedoanmend - January 30, 2019

“Rare speech by EU’s Deputy Brexit Negotiator on UK Talks”

Sabine Weyland spells out the current state of affairs with awful clarity. ~13 mins long

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GW - January 30, 2019

Formidable woman.

Can you imagine any of the Tory cabinet being able to speak with knowledge about the internal politics of the EU27 in their second or third language?

The fact that this is unthinkable says a lot about the autism of British politics.

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makedoanmend - January 30, 2019

Yeah, GW. I’m always amazed that so mainland Europeans are bilingual, at the very least.

Tbh, it’s an area on which I need to work. I have basic French and a smattering of Irish. I try to spend at least 15-30 mins on each every day, but I tend to lag for weeks at a time.

Agree. She’s impressive. Really impressive. And from what I can take up, she seems to be pretty clear about what has taken place and why. It’s pretty clarifying and refreshing.

(Still, the entire fiasco seems pretty bleak right now.)

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dave o'd - January 30, 2019

Some interesting stuff here but could you please not use ‘autism’ as a pejorative term?

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GW - January 31, 2019

Please accept my apologies for use of this term. I realise it must be offensive for people with autism or Asperger’s or the relatives of these people.

What I was struggling for was a cast of mind that has no model of the subjectivity and agency of others. I guess solipsism is the closest alternative word I can find.

Post-imperial solipsism – for what I wrongly called ‘autism’ read that.

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Oisin Rodden - February 1, 2019

You know I’m in two minds about this kind of discourse on language. Autism does mean a difficulty in understanding others. Can we call a party “Blind” or an economy “crippled” without being offensive? Its often not easy to decide.
We have to fight against ignorance and any kind of abuse directed towards people with disabilities. But the postmodern focus on extra sensitive terminology often seems to me to be a kind of linguistic compensation for the fact that life has actually become harder for “marginalized”, more accurately oppressed, people.
Remember the advisor to the Tories who got fired for saying disabled people were simply worth less value in the Labour market? Well he was simply expressing honestly what the governments free market sociopathic, can I use that word?, ideology actually means. He didnt get into trouble for making the poorest people worse off even to the point of hunger, for making disabled peoples lives hell, or for harassing them even onto their deathbeds and all for the benefit of a private company. No he got into trouble for failing to use the correct euphemistic language.
Its the same with race. In America a cop could get fired for using a racist term. He will however be more likely to get away with actually murdering a person of colour. Before civil rights cops used racist language as a matter of course. But police brutality meant beating people up. Now it means shooting people even children.
Or look at how immigrants are treated in Britain. Detention camps even under Blair. Deportations of life long British citizens because of the colour of their skin. The Tories actually carried out a part of the the National fronts programme from the 70’s. But Theresa May and Amber Rudd would certainly be more careful about using passe terms than they were with destroying those peoples lives.
And look at the way Bernie Sanders was attacked for using the term Ghetto. As if America wasn’t a deeply segregated society.
I think in many ways political correctness, starting out as a legitimate defence mechanism for oppressed groups has become more and more co-opted as part of the disciplinary and ideological apparatus of neo-liberalism. In many ways its actually used to mask intensified oppression. It wouldn’t be the first time a progressive idea has been co-opted and twisted by Liberals. Just think about democracy. Self identified Liberals fought against universal suffrage for a hundred years. They now lay claim to the term to justify everything from wars of aggression to attacks on the Left and the Labour movement

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WorldbyStorm - February 1, 2019

There’s something in what you say re a diversionary aspect – though in fairness to liberals – words I don’t use every day I think they can’t be reasonably held accountable for those who used the term centuries ago, words do change their meaning. I’d also wonder about police brutality in the US being ‘softer’ than now before civil rights (and ‘just’ beating up people as we know from the RUC builds up antagonism as well in communities which eventually explodes). I think that’s a stretch and few in the African American community would agree that was the case. The problem you point to isn’t civil rights or even PC, it’s the idea that the latter is enough when it really isn’t, or that it is a substitute when it really isn’t. My own thoughts on this are that courtesy is much under appreciated as a virtue in political discourse, even/particulary when those on the other side are anything but. But in the context of genuine structural imbalances or oppressions it’s not enough either.

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5. Paddy Healy - January 30, 2019

Income Tax Relief for Millionaires But Varadkar Falsely Claims That Government Would Have to Borrow to Pay The Nurses!!! He Would Only Have To Fairly Tax Irish Super Rich Individuals
Seamus Healy TD in Dáil https://wp.me/pKzXa-oM

NERI( Funded by ICTU) Has Shown that, When All Taxes are included, including VAT, The Richest 10% only pay the same proportion of their income in Tax as the poorest 10%!!!! This has been Confirmed by Central Statistics Office(CSO)
TOP 10% of financial asset holders now have €40 billion above what they had at peak boom levels in 2006. (CSO Institutional Sector Accounts-Financial) No tax is payable on these assets or even the increase in these assets unless they are sold. Financial assets do not include businesses, homes, buildings, farms.They include Shares , bank deposits and other personal investments owned by households paying tax in Ireland
The Comptroller and Auditor General recently revealed that 83 high net worth individuals, with in excess of €50 million in assets each, declare taxable incomes of less than the average industrial wage-35,600Euro? They can decide what to pay themselves!At present, this is perfectly legal under legislation being presided over by the Government.
Only 13 Irish Citizens who are tax exiles paid the levy introduced Lenihan in 2008 in 2013

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6. GW - February 1, 2019

Sad to see Jeremy Hardy has died.

The quintessential decent English piss-taker.

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7. CL - February 1, 2019

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are force-feeding at least six detained migrants on a hunger strike to protest mistreatment, an ICE spokesperson confirmed to VICE News Thursday.
The federal officials at an El Paso, Texas, jail are using nasal tubes to force-feed the protesters, according to the Associated Press, which broke the story. ICE told VICE News officials are force-feeding them under court order.”
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/43zwqg/ice-is-force-feeding-detained-migrants-on-hunger-strike-to-protest-abuses-report-says

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8. lcox - February 1, 2019

Good to see https://irishbroadleft.com/ come onstream (already mentioned by GW in Signs of Hope but needs a signal boost).

Looks aimed to fill the space left by the late lamented Irish Left Review more than say rabble or Indymedia, i.e. more policy / issue / parliamentary focussed but that too is needed. Seems genuinely broad-based: they say from Marxist to social democratic, namecheck community groups, unions and NGOs and want 50% women writers etc. SF / left republicans in the editorial mix.

Hoping it lives up to the initial promise and thrives.

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WorldbyStorm - February 1, 2019

Looks good! Do they intend to have rolling articles – ie posted up during the month or just publish on a single day each month? I see everything bar the introductory piece is 1st of Feb.

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lcox - February 5, 2019

Not sure! They seem to have pulled together a bunch of pieces to launch it but whether that means it’ll be monthly or that was just the launch date…?

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WorldbyStorm - February 5, 2019

Cheers, yeah it’s a bit unclear

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9. Paddy Healy - February 1, 2019

From: Chair of PANA, Roger Cole
To: Maureen O’Sullivan
Sent: 2/1/2019 1:02 PM
Subject: Re: People’s Dail in Liberty Hall support Irish Neutrality
Maureen,
The best thing I can say is the Irish Dept. of Foreign Affairs must have an ironic sense of humour, the worst is that it is
deliberately lying. The duties and responsibilities of states that regard themselves as neutral is stated in International law in the Hague Convention (see attached). A state that has allowed over 3 million US troops and an unknown amount of military equipment (the state does not search the planes) land in Shannon Airport is not neutral. In international law, there is no such thing as “military neutrality”. It is just an invention of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs to retain the word neutrality while destroying it.
The state in fact signed up to two Mutual Defence and Solidarity Clauses, Article 28 A (7) and Article 188R in the Lisbon Treaty
and has via its decision to join PESCO is deliberately taking part in the creation of a “true European Army” as stated by President Macron.

PANA https://www.pana.ie
From: “Maureen O’Sullivan”
To: PANA
Sent: 1/31/2019 10:36 AM
Subject: RE: People’s Dail in Liberty Hall support Irish Neutrality
FYI
Regards
Maureen.

______________________________________________
For Written Answer on : 29/01/2019

Department: Foreign Affairs and Trade
Asked by: Maureen O’Sullivan T.D.
______________________________________________

QUESTION

To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way in which he can ensure and guarantee neutrality in view of recent signals from the EU that security and military union is the preferred next stage of European integration.
REPLY

Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality is characterised by our non-participation in any military alliance. Our position as a member of the European Union in no way undermines or threatens this policy, a policy to which this Government remains fully committed. This commitment is recognised by our European partners in the legally-binding Protocols attaching to the Lisbon Treaty, which state that “The Treaty of Lisbon does not affect or prejudice Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality.”

The Constitution provides a further safeguard on this issue where Article 29(4)(9) states “ The State shall not adopt a decision taken by the European Council to establish a common defence pursuant to Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union where that common defence would include the State.” This Constitutional safeguard was inserted in 2002 at the time of the Nice Referendum and was reconfirmed in 2009 following the Lisbon Treaty Referendum.
Ireland’s military neutrality is a core element of Ireland’s foreign policy, as stated in our 2015 Foreign Policy Review “The Global Island” and reconfirmed in the White Paper on Defence. It brings with it a deep commitment to international peace and security which we work to achieve through our efforts in peacekeeping, conflict-prevention and support for human rights – in many cases alongside our European partners. While others may express different aspirations, this will continue to be our position when it comes to future enhanced cooperation through the EU’s Global Strategy and its Common Security and Defence Policy.

From: PANA [mailto:info@pana.ie]
Sent: 27 January 2019 15:50
To: Maureen O’Sullivan
Subject: People’s Dail in Liberty Hall support Irish Neutrality

Peace and Neutrality Alliance
Comhaontas Na Neodrachta Agus Síochána

People’s Dail in Liberty Hall support Irish Neutrality…26/1/2019
About 300 people gathered in Liberty Hall to remember the First Dail Eireann (1919-2019) and to agree a list of Resolutions dealing with issues related to democracy, equality, global environment and Irish Neutrality. The event organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum is a move towards building left unity, outline ideas for a Democratic Programme for a New Century, and you can get more detail on this event on their Website, including photos and a screening of speeches…
https://www.facebook.com/Peadar-ODonnell-Socialist-Republican-Forum-1538296709833402/
Clare Daly TD proposed Resolution 2 ‘For a Neutral Ireland’, and she ticked all the boxes, our collusion with US imperialism by allowing their war planes refuel at Shannon Airport, EU Militarism, NATO (PfP), Pesco, Operation Sofia, government plans to purchase a €200 million battleship for our naval force…and her concern regarding the US now using their well-used strategy for regime change…this time in Venezuela…Gerry Carroll MLA seconded the resolution and again performed very well.
Gearoid and I handed out ‘The EU, Democracy or Empire’ pamphlets to delegates attending.

Yes to Peace-No to NATO
NATO, the biggest war machinery in human history is “celebrating” its 70th anniversary with a summit in Washington D.C., on 4th April 2019. The World Peace Council will hold an Anti-NATO Conference on 31st March 2019 from 3:00 to 7:00 PM at the St. Stephen Episcopal Church Newton St., NW, Washington DC. For details on their events and to download a WPC poster… http://wpc-in.org/
Best Wishes,
Tom Crilly, PANA Communications Officer,
Tel 0035387 2937558

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10. Paddy Healy - February 2, 2019

Nurses Call National Rally!!
RTE NEWS:The INMO has also said it will be organising a national rally on Saturday 9 February. Make it Huge!!! https://wp.me/pKzXa-oM
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Everybody – except the Government – recognise that there is a serious understaffing problem in our health services. The public support for the strike on Wednesday showed that the Irish people stand with nurses and midwives.
Income Tax Relief for Millionaires But Varadkar Falsely Claims That Government Would Have to Borrow to Pay The Nurses!!! He Would Only Have To Fairly Tax Irish Super Rich Individuals

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11. Liberius - February 2, 2019
WorldbyStorm - February 3, 2019

Was he associated with any particular TDs?

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Liberius - February 3, 2019

He was elected in 2014 as a PBP candidate, he subsequently left PBP and then contested the 2016 GE as a “Independents4Change” candidate, essentially a Daly sweeper candidate.

Leaflet from Clare Daly and Barry Martin- Independents4Change -Dublin Fingal #ge16

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WorldbyStorm - February 3, 2019

Ah yeah, I place him now. Well that’s an interesting career, isn’t it?

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Liberius - February 3, 2019

Indeed, he picked up 2412 votes in 2016 so there will be a fair bit of extra space opening up in Dublin Fingal for others, although you’d imagine a chunk of that will return to Daly.

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12. Starkadder - February 2, 2019

An extraordinarily irresponsible article has appeared in “Jacobin”
by Alex Gourevitch. Called “Leave the EU Already”, it states that
“the one democratic act possible is to insist on exiting the EU, deal or no deal.”

https://donotlink.it/ZLEK

No mention of the Irish border issue in the piece anywhere, nor of the
catastrophic effects leaving the EU without a deal would have
on the UK working class.

Paul Mason wrote a rebuttal to Gourevitch’s piece that is worth
reading.

View at Medium.com

As for “Jacobin” if it produces any more crap like this, they might
as well let Gizmodo media buy it and turn it into another clickbait factory.

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WorldbyStorm - February 3, 2019

It’s weird, a sort of catastrophism… and as you say, Ireland… pah, not even relevant.

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WorldbyStorm - February 3, 2019

Oh dear, Gourevitch is a Spiked regular. Well that answers that.

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Jim Monaghan - February 3, 2019

Finbar Geaney wrote an anti-Brtexit artycle for one small US blog. https://oaklandsocialist.com/2019/02/02/brexit-and-jeremy-corbyn/?fbclid=IwAR0y9y9vT4ii5JvuDydvvCEcDLLGIUFiTvoet9rXNjGFcDhPA-TDaz62uaI Finbar is now in Labour, I think. Active in one of the Teachers unions.

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13. Paddy Healy - February 4, 2019

Minister for Health Harris had a representative on the Development Board for the Childrens Hospital. But the Representative couldn’t report directly to the Minister!! He had “Collective Responsibility” to the board instead! So Harris didn’t know until months later about the over-run! If you believe that you will believe anything. Varadkar and Harris who set up these manipulative “governance structures” should resign

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Alibaba - February 5, 2019

Well spotted. It’s a needs must to report to the people who appointed you, or in trade union or other circles, the people who elected you. Where necessary, it is vital to defy the undemocratic rule of the majority over the minority on boards/committees.

Two things are clear in the children’s hospital situation. First, demand a change to the terms of reference detailing the governance structures to prevent this happening again in the boards of publicly funded bodies and second, call for the resignations of those key politicians who decline to support this. Those who do not repair the damage are determined to repeat it.

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14. lcox - February 5, 2019

Some on this site will know the Manchester socialist activist and thinker Colin Barker, who died this morning aged 79.

I don’t have the words yet but there are many tributes on his facebook page. Colin’s last email to friends and comrades spoke of how much he had been influenced by Hal Draper’s Two Souls of Socialism and Marx’s insistence that the emancipation of the working class must be conquered by the working class.

Rest in power.

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WorldbyStorm - February 5, 2019

+1

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15. Paddy Healy - February 5, 2019

Alibaba-The Childrens Hospital Project is just A Further Example of Neo-Liberal Systems of Government Designed to Allow All Those In Authority To Evade Responsibility For All Bad and Unpopular Developments
On my blog:General Plan Designed to Allow Ministers and Governments to Evade Responsibility for Citizens’ Well-Being https://wp.me/pKzXa-1ey

“Scoping Exercises” , Investigations, Tribunals With Terms of Reference Designed to Make them ineffective are All Part of the System
EG Scally Report into Cervical Check Was NOT ALLOWED To APPORTION BLAME. But even Scally Found “Nobody was in charge”!!!

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Alibaba - February 6, 2019

Paddy, I read your blog and it should go without saying I don’t disagree with the essence of what you say. Yes, it is done in such a way that senior administrators are ‘not required to report on “operational matters” to Minister’. And yes, ‘Recent Governments have put systems in place to ensure that nobody can be held responsible for anything.’

But let us not forget the politicians who came out political point-scoring at the expense of addressing the key issues:

Fianna Fail’s Barry Cowen noted that Harris and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe stating that they were unaware prior to last November of the overruns were “not credible”.

Brendan Howlin said it “beggars belief” that Harris did not inform Donohoe about the overrun when he was informed about it in August. Labour health spokesman Alan Kelly said: “It’s a matter now for Paschal Donohoe and Simon Harris to come out now and line-up chronologically who knew what, when, in their departments and who did what.”

Yet where is the national children’s hospital 2 billion going? Into the pockets of the contractors, the very same pockets of the class that FG/FF represents. These things need saying and I ain’t hearing it from the Left (self-declared revolutionaries excluded, though they have no presence in power). Similarly, a fit for purpose Left could easily craft some cleverly worded demand whose effect would constrain any civil servant or administrator appointed to a board to be fully accountable to the relevant Minister: the very thing I already requested. The failure to acknowledge the necessity of this, or better still to act upon it, is to be mired in defeatism. To hold forth on the call for resignations instead can tend to ring hollow. Perhaps we can sing from the same sheet on this one.

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16. irishelectionliterature - February 5, 2019

Might be of interest to some here. Billy Bragg playing 3 shows in Dublin in July.
1st night is a current career-spanning set,
2nd night songs from his first three albums,
3rd night songs from his second three albums.
Got a three night ticket this morning.
https://www.musicglue.com/billy-bragg?fbclid=IwAR0WdC9MFxQAHa3ry5AgAomKgOJ1kyGztYXg_00h4-2RwIPJL113xnOYzcA

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17. Paddy Healy - February 5, 2019

It is even worse than I said. It was Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure Donohoe, who had the representative on the Development Board for the Childrens Hospital.-not minister Harris!!

Neo-Liberal System of Governance https://wp.me/pKzXa-1ey

The person concerned was required by regulation to tell Minister O’Donohoe of any unexpected development in public expenditure. Yet the Taoiseach has just accepted at Leaders Questions that Minister for Health Harris knew in September bu government including Minister Donohoe only heard 3 months later and then via Minister Harris. Recent Governments have put systems in place to ensure that nobody can be held responsible for anything.

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18. ar scáth a chéile - February 6, 2019

Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile:

Coveney announces Ireland’s support for Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela https://jrnl.ie/4479683

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19. Paddy Healy - February 10, 2019

MEDIA NOW ACCEPTING MY EARLIER ANALYSIS (see at link) OF Cover-Up of HOSPITAL Over-Run Following Leaks from Department of Health
Government Didn’t Want To Be Told of Hospital Over-Run AS It would have Endangered Tax Relief in the Lead up to the General Election Which Varadkar Was Then Seeking To Hold—Harris can’t be sacked because Varadkar and Donohoe Were Parties to the Cover-up
S.Business Post Feb10 Full Article https://wp.me/pKzXa-1ey
“Some in Health (Harris’Department) believe that DPER (Donohoe’s Department) didn’t want to know about the problems with the National Children’s Hospital as it grappled with its considerable work on the now-annual Health budget overrun.”

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