Denis Naughten - An honourable man in a dishonest Fine Gael

eagle eye

Credit to Denis Naughten TD who gave a commitment regarding Roscommon Hospital while looking to be elected. He said ‘I do not envisage
any reneging but if it does happen I would resign the party whip'

He is expected to face the party whip and be removed from the parliamentary.

I salute the man for having the courage and conviction to stand by his pre-election promises unlike others from the same party.

Frank Feighan voted with the government tonight.

Both TDs had pre-election said the services at Roscommon Hospital would be retained. They were repeating the words written to a local newspaper by their deputy leader and now Minister for Health James Reilly who said the following....

I would like to confirm that Fine Gael undertakes, in accordance
with the Fine Gael Policy on Local Hospitals, to retain
the Emergency, Surgical, Medical and other health services at
Roscommon Hospital which are present on the formation of
the 31st Dáil.

Link to quotes
I said before the election that Fine Gael were just like Fianna Fail in that they will make promises and break them. They are all cut from the same cloth. Who do we trust now? I'd hate to see Sinn Fein in power but when politicians keep lying about what they will do the electorate loses confidence in them and somebody from another party gets elected next time around.

Anyways tl dr,

Denis Naughten is an honest politician, Fine Gael = Fianna Fail.

RMD

If this is true he certainly is a respectable and honest man. To many people pleasing prícks in power, they'll make any promise the people want to hear yet when it comes to delivering it there's always some problem.

Good politicians are few and far between unfortunately.

Sand

Whilst I am very much in favour of the removal of the whip - a cancer in Irish politics - via secret ballots, its worth noting that Naughten is just playing to the crowd. Theres nothing admirable about his NIMBYism on cuts when he will happily vote for cutting other peoples hospitals, benefits, wages and conditions. Theres no leadership on offer from him, just cowardice.

Its also worth noting that prior to the very recent election he did make a pledge to support the FG line, knowing that the next few years would be ones of austerity. He freely gave that pledge and hes broken his pledge so make of that what you will when you talk about "Fine Gael were just like Fianna Fail in that they will make promises and break them"

gandalf

To be honest we elected this Government in to take the difficult and unpalatable decisions the previous FF led Governments were incapable of doing and have landed us in this mess. I have to commend the current government on starting to do this. Personally I would prefer it if they got all the pain over with a lot quicker and use the rest of their term in power to rebuild after the cut backs that have to come.

Until we detach local politics from national issues we will never get out of this quagmire. As for Denis Naughten he is a coward, the country needs people in charge who can take the hard decisions, he obviously is not capable of this.

Cathal O

While at the minute , like so many other young people in college , I have several political options in front of me. I have witnessed the shambles of the Fianna Fail / Green G'ment, so they are out as a prospect for me. I am now looking at the claims both Labour and Fine Gael have made during said g'ments term and in pre election. Now i will join a party next year and it will be Sinn Fein, while many people are unhappy/ disagree with their history, I am looking towards the future and while honesty may be even joked about on the party itself, i feel they are the best TD's to have for their constituents, not on pot hole politics issues but on major decisions.

This is the last chance i had given to labour time to distinguish themselves as an honourable party, but as a person from a town with A & E services taken away from their local hospital (and more services) under fianna fail rulership, this is the last promise i can take broken.

Yes Naughten is honourable in his vote, but his statement was less than that , negligent even, he made a false statement knowing its fault, or careless knowing or not caring if it was true or not.
Hospital services are not a luxury, they are a necessity, living is the essence of life, not money, luxury or the economy, so why put money into these instead of essentials.

Why wont this country learn from its mistakes, choosing someone other then FG or FF. Albert Einstein once said that Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, I think this country is long due a term in the straight jacket

mikemac

What's happening in Roscommon is exactly what happened already in Nenagh and Ennis and will happen in Portlaoise

The public reps there could not change the decision to downgrade so a Roscommon TD was never going to be able to do the same in his own area

Eagle Eye, I don't see a statement from Luke Flanagan your poll topper in the link to Roscommon People. Where is he on this issue?

eagle eye

Please folks don't respond to those saying that Naughten is a coward. Thats a trick that some people use to turn things into a row about something other than the most important thing here.

The Fine Gael part lied to the electorate of Roscommon/South Leitrim before the election. Its clear that they even fooled one of their own party Mr Denis Naughten.

eagle eye

mikemac wrote: »

What's happening in Roscommon is exactly what happened already in Nenagh and Ennis and will happen in Portlaoise

The public reps there could not change the decision to downgrade so a Roscommon TD was never going to be able to do the same in his own area

Eagle Eye, I don't see a statement from Luke Flanagan your poll topper in the link to Roscommon People. Where is he on this issue?

I'll reply to that in the Luke Flanagan thread. I don't want this going away form the fact that Fine Gael have lied to us. They are just like Fianna Fail to me now. Dishonest and do their own thing after they con the electorate.

Sand

but as a person from a town with A & E services taken away from their local hospital (and more services) under fianna fail rulership, this is the last promise i can take broken.

Out of curiousity, do you expect your town to also have a 50,000 all seater stadium and an international airport? What about the people who live in other towns? Do they not also have this magical inalienable right?

We need fewer, better hospitals and we need a better ambulance service to ensure people are rapidly transferred to them. A need desperately underlined by the inability to transport a girl from Ireland to London to access services which she couldnt get in any hospital in Ireland. With a better organised ambulance services both the people of Roscommon and everyone in the country would have better access to better hospitals.

Why wont this country learn from its mistakes, choosing someone other then FG or FF. Albert Einstein once said that Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, I think this country is long due a term in the straight jacket

I dont know - why cant people in this country see issues on a scale larger than their town or parish? Why bother having national politics when peoples vision of the country doesnt stretch much further than 2 miles from their front door?

Cathal O

eagle eye wrote: »

The Fine Gael part lied to the electorate of Roscommon/South Leitrim before the election. Its clear that they even fooled one of their own party Mr Denis Naughten.

True, but Mr. Naughten and the whole FG party knew well what their plans were, they knew the couldnt afford to keept the hospital open.
I dont know what u think Eagle Eye, but both persons here knew what their partys plan was, yet they both wanted to play on peoples heartstrings by promising this in return for a nice hefty salary, a list of expenses as long as your arm, and a nice tidy pension to keep them in private heath services not worrying over roscommons less well off.

While it is FG's policy that was at fault, the two Td's in question both knew this and yet continued to promise the impossible unknown to the electorate. I know this exact tactic was used in my local hospital (Monaghan),
Believe me, the two td's in question knew the policy their party was to follow before making careless statements that they did

eagle eye

Cathal O wrote: »

True, but Mr. Naughten and the whole FG party knew well what their plans were, they knew the couldnt afford to keept the hospital open.
I dont know what u think Eagle Eye, but both persons here knew what their partys plan was, yet they both wanted to play on peoples heartstrings by promising this in return for a nice hefty salary, a list of expenses as long as your arm, and a nice tidy pension to keep them in private heath services not worrying over roscommons less well off.

While it is FG's policy that was at fault, the two Td's in question both knew this and yet continued to promise the impossible unknown to the electorate. I know this exact tactic was used in my local hospital (Monaghan),
Believe me, the two td's in question knew the policy their party was to follow before making careless statements that they did

Fine Gael lied to us. The quote from James Reilly is in the first post on the thread. This is very serious, its not just about Roscommon Hospital its about having another bunch of liars running the country.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Good thing the Government have such a gigantic majority eh?

Cathal O

Sand wrote: »

Out of curiousity, do you expect your town to also have a 50,000 all seater stadium and an international airport? What about the people who live in other towns? Do they not also have this magical inalienable right?

We need fewer, better hospitals and we need a better ambulance service to ensure people are rapidly transferred to them.

With a better organised ambulance services both the people of Roscommon and everyone in the country would have better access to better hospitals.



I dont know - why cant people in this country see issues on a scale larger than their town or parish? Why bother having national politics when peoples vision of the country doesnt stretch much further than 2 miles from their front door?

If what you say is true, that we need fewer batter hospitals, how do you expect the current hospitals to deal with the extra influx of a & e patients from rocsommon , when they are currently packed to capacity, if these hospitals were "better" that would be a diffferent story but the expect these hospitals to deal with the influx of all these new patients with current standards. A already underpreforming hospital servce will be extra strained by these actions and will lead to more stressed staff which leads to more mistakes, these mistakes will cost lives.

Another point is that the ambulence service is already a joke, many people have been transferred from monaghan hospital to cavan hospital in dire need of urgent attention in a hospital, however when arriving in cavan they are then again ruushed to louth. The ambulence service is not able to deal with these extra influx of patients either. Eventually these ambulence services will also be cut. The ambulence service in monaghan was promised to stay in place after the a & e was taken away, however, aswell as now using the cavan services, we are also now expected to use their ambulence services now that ours has been disbanded.

Also, HOSPITALS ARE NOT "PARISH POLITICS",

eagle eye wrote: »

Fine Gael lied to us. The quote from James Reilly is in the first post on the thread. This is very serious, its not just about Roscommon Hospital its about having another bunch of liars running the country.

I agree, just adding the extra point that the td's knew they were lying when they were making their statements

seamusfamous

Fair fecks to him he is one of the very few honest ones

Pride Fighter

People saying he is a decent and honourable man??

Perhaps you's have not noticed, the economy has tanked. Roscommon is a massive county and only has approximately 60,000 people. Each county does not need an A&E. Several primary care centres, yes. With centres of excellence around the country. Granted there should be an extra one in the North-West IMO, in Sligo. But no way many counties require A&E's that have them.

Naughten is playing the parish pump populism card. The 2 FF TD's in Sligo did the same, thankfully the electorate seen right through it. Hopefully they do with him. Principles?? Dont make me laugh, he's thinking elections in 4 and a half years time and he wants to be re-elected. If he had principles, he'd have a political ideology like some in FG do, (Varadkar is a Thatcherite for example, Gay Mitchell a Christian Democrat). Populism and the parish pump got us were we are, lets rid ourselves of this parish pumper at the next elections and vote for candidates who stick to their guns, regardless of tough decisions, cause there is plenty more of those to come.

eagle eye

Lets rid ourselves of the liars first. First post shows the lies of a senior member of Fine Gael.

Cathal O

eagle eye wrote: »

Lets rid ourselves of the liars first. First post shows the lies of a senior member of Fine Gael.

Welcome to Irish Politics unfortunately, im sure its not just one senior member and not just of FG.

Get rid of them one by one

Podge_irl

I'm curious as to where there exists this mythical politician or party that follows through on 100% of their promises.

Also, it turns out that pretty much every plan ever devised in the history of the universe is altered and changed as things unfold. Most people who plan out their day end up finding something unexpected happening. The scale of complexities when running a whole country is a ridiculous order of magnitude higher then that. It's quite possible FG genuinely intended to try and keep the Roscommon A&E open but found, when in government and working with the reality of the situation, that is wasn't practical. I'd sooner have a party that makes these hard decisions that are locally unpopular then one that tries to appease everyone in the country and ends up satisfying no one.

The whip is a total blight on Irish politics, but Naughton is merely positioning himself to get re-elected.

bleg

Sand wrote: »

Whilst I am very much in favour of the removal of the whip - a cancer in Irish politics - via secret ballots, its worth noting that Naughten is just playing to the crowd. Theres nothing admirable about his NIMBYism on cuts when he will happily vote for cutting other peoples hospitals, benefits, wages and conditions. Theres no leadership on offer from him, just cowardice.

Sums it up perfectly.

eagle eye

Its quite simple don't make any promises you don't think you can keep. They have all been around long enough to know this but Fine Gael still did it. Just like Fianna Fail have done election after election. Fine Gael haven't had many opportunities to get into government but when they do they renege on their promises. Thats not acceptable, they have conned the electorate.

Wolfe Tone

Hypocrites and liars.

When will the Irish people cop that FF and FG are the same, Labour no better.

eagle eye

eagle eye wrote: »

Please folks don't respond to those saying that Naughten is a coward. Thats a trick that some people use to turn things into a row about something other than the most important thing here.

The Fine Gael part lied to the electorate of Roscommon/South Leitrim before the election. Its clear that they even fooled one of their own party Mr Denis Naughten.

Just a point to make. People in South Leitrim would use the Sligo A+E.

eagle eye

It doesn't matter what A+E they would use, they are part of the electorate that was lied to.

Amazotheamazing

In a sense I admire Fine Gael for this move. Closing hospital facilities is never a vote winner so reflect for a minute on why they made this decision? It's contrary to their interests as a party (to get elected) and it's contrary to what most people would want in an ideal world (everyone wants easy access to hospitals.

Imo, it's a brave step to admit we can't afford the current facilities in Ireland. Now we need to work out how we can improve the system to a point that the people in Roscommon don't lose out unduly by this decision.

Ireland has a problem that it's not politically sound to face, we've too many bad facilities and not enough good ones, we've poor local hospitals, we've too many IT's, airports etc.

The real issues from this for me are why is so hard to get to Galway from Roscommon, why is basic infrastructure so bad in the west and will Fine Gael continue to make hard decisions?

I understand the frustration felt by people from Roscommon but it's in the national interest to build proper infrastructure and cut down on wastage. I certainly understand the frustration of broken promises but if money isn't there, what can be done?

Cathal O

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

if money isn't there, what can be done?

they could have not lied about it as an excuse to get votes to get into power, this is the reason for the uproar, not the actual closure, THE LIES

Amazotheamazing

Cathal O wrote: »

they could have not lied about it as an excuse to get votes to get into power, this is the reason for the uproar, not the actual closure, THE LIES

Yes, but you have to recognise that until they got into Government they had no detailed insight how bad things really are.

Now, they could continue to write cheques and hope they don't bounce or they could face up to where we are now and respond accordingly.

No doubt it'd be better if they were in a position to keep every promise made, but are they? They aren't closing the place because it'll win them votes, they are closing it because they have to.

Sometimes the situation changes around you and you have to respond to that, it'd be worse to keep promises they (and we) couldn't afford, imo. Not that I agree with misleading or lying to the electorate but it's clear we're facing into a hellish budget in December, I think we're only really starting to see what FF have left for this country now.

hatrickpatrick

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0706/roscommon.html

Roscommon Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten has voted against the Government on a motion to downgrade Roscommon County Hospital, but colleague Frank Feighan voted for the motion.
The motion by Sinn Féin to retain emergency services at smaller hospitals was eventually defeated 96 to 47.
Mr Naughten said afterwards he had no choice but to vote against the Government, because of promises he made during the election campaign to keep Roscommon Hospital Emergency Department open.
The emergency department at the hospital is to close from next Monday.
Mr Naughten now looks certain to lose his position as Chair of the Dáil Health Committee.

Bravo.
Brave, courageous politician actually sticking up for his pre-election promises - even in the face of the potential party political consequences - instead of defrauding his voters as most politicians do.

We need more politicians like this man in our government. This is true democracy. A promise is a promise.

eagle eye

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

In a sense I admire Fine Gael for this move.

They lied, conned the electorate and you twist it to say you admire them. Lol.

Amazotheamazing

eagle eye wrote: »

They lied, conned the electorate and you twist it to say you admire them. Lol.

Only in the sense that it's a hard decision that needs to be taken. We have to stop thinking we can put off the hard decisions.

Now it's possible FG knew they'd have to take this action when the promises were made and I certainly wouldn't condone that but if they didn't I don't see what choice they currently have?

You can't keep a promise if it means further bankrupting the country, and that applies to every promise, every political party, every parish and (at a push) every parish pump. As I said elsewhere, if we're at the point where the A&E in one of the regional cities (Limerick) might have to close at nights, i really see us as country in even far more trouble than people realise.

If that's the case, and this is only coming to light now, would you hold any party to a promise made when it would now be bad for Ireland if it was kept?
At what price should a promise be kept? At any price? Even default?

Obviously this one decision wouldn't decide default either way, but a hundred like it would.

avalon68

eagle eye wrote: »

They lied, conned the electorate and you twist it to say you admire them. Lol.

Noone like to see local services being removed, but in reality, the money isnt there right now. This could be an opportunity to improve local services - I have never understood why someone who falls over and needs a xray cant simply be seen by a local GP and not waste hospital time and money? Other countries can do this - why cant we? A and E should be an emergency resource, not a one stop repair shop for everything from a sprained baby finger to heart attack. If the system was used as intended - for emergencies only, it wouldnt cost as much, people wouldnt have to wait on trolleys and less staff would be required. I disagree with this guy stepping down; it solves nothing. We need a national approach to these problems, not a local approach.

Einhard

I'd have a different take on it, namely that Naughten is looking after his seat, and voting with an eye on the next election. he knows his actions won't bring down the government, and so it's quite an easy decision to make. I imagine that he'll be reprimanded, maybe lose the whip, but will be brought back within the tent sooner rather than later. Nothing particularly courageous about his actions. Indeed, I admire the TDs who, knowing of the potential consequences for their political careers, take the difficult decisions, far more than those who vote only to appease their constituents, and for an easy life.

amacachi

Having a big majority allows plenty of individuals in the party to "make a stand".

eagle eye

Regardless of what spiel you come up with the fact of the matter is they lied and conned the electorate and not just in Roscommon/South Leitrim but a lot of other areas too.

Thats now Charlie Haughey, Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny who have went to the polls lying and conning the electorate to get into government.

hatrickpatrick

Einhard wrote: »

I'd have a different take on it, namely that Naughten is looking after his seat, and voting with an eye on the next election. he knows his actions won't bring down the government, and so it's quite an easy decision to make. I imagine that he'll be reprimanded, maybe lose the whip, but will be brought back within the tent sooner rather than later. Nothing particularly courageous about his actions. Indeed, I admire the TDs who, knowing of the potential consequences for their political careers, take the difficult decisions, far more than those who vote only to appease their constituents, and for an easy life.

Making difficult decisions is fine as long as you're upfront about them. A promise, however, is a promise.
I have no time for politicians who say one thing to get elected and then vote the opposite way in the Dail. It is, in my view, electoral fraud - getting yourself elected in false premises.

This is a guy who says something during an election campaign and actually keeps his word after the election. I have an immense amount of respect for that.

fatboypee

Einhard wrote: »

I'd have a different take on it, namely that Naughten is looking after his seat, and voting with an eye on the next election. he knows his actions won't bring down the government, and so it's quite an easy decision to make. I imagine that he'll be reprimanded, maybe lose the whip, but will be brought back within the tent sooner rather than later. Nothing particularly courageous about his actions. Indeed, I admire the TDs who, knowing of the potential consequences for their political careers, take the difficult decisions, far more than those who vote only to appease their constituents, and for an easy life.

Sorry,

I don't buy this in any shape or form. Voting for what your constituents want you to vote for, is, for me what they elected you to do. Anything else is pure arrogance. If the consensus in a constituency is such that requires a vote against the party / government, then that is what you should do.

Bottom line for me is in the wider term used to describe the position:

"an elected representative". If you vote against your constituents' wishes (as Frank Feighan has done) pretending to take a longer term view about a five foot wave coming down instead of a 2 foot one now, to me you are not working for the people who elected you and thus your position is equally untenable.

jmayo

eagle eye wrote: »

...
Denis Naughten is an honest politician, Fine Gael = Fianna Fail.

Ah FFS.
Yeah FG = ff because they lied when they said they would keep Roscommon A&E opened.
A hospital A&E that should have been shut over 20 years ago.

That A&E was due for closure over 20 years ago by cj haughey but for electoral support of independent candidate who stood for hospital he backed down.

Then of course bertie the great gave the hospital a new A&E.
Roscommon hospital is a kip and Reilly even alluded to it when he made public some of the figures regarding survival rates.
People in North Roscommon are not far from Sligo, People in West of the county are not that far from Castlebar and people in the South of the county have Ballinasloe or even Galway.

eagle eye wrote: »

Regardless of what spiel you come up with the fact of the matter is they lied and conned the electorate and not just in Roscommon/South Leitrim but a lot of other areas too.

Thats now Charlie Haughey, Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny who have went to the polls lying and conning the electorate to get into government.

Do any of the ones harping on about keeping their A&E, their whatever open realise how fooked we are.

A load of nimbys who will mouth platitudes about making cuts, but when the cuts visit their inept over expensive institution they all go off crying foul.

Would these people rather that Kenny and co did nothing and just kept spending money we do not have ala the election promises of SF and the other assorted gobdaws on the left.

And please do not bring the bloody banks into this.
We have a huge budget deficit without ever mentioning the banks.

The thing that banks did, is force us to blow our pension reserves and take a bailout.
Leave them out of the equation and we were and are still spending way beyond our means.

I am waiting for the day when the government start taking a hatcket to the HSE hierarchy.

BTW I do think that the government should put at least another 4 or 5 fully enabled paramedic units into the area and also this whole thing highlights something I have wanted for years, a dedicated fully functional air ambulance service in every province.
With those types of services and less reliance on A&Es for unnecessary trips with "cuts and bruises" injuries we could shut a few more decrepit A&Es.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Why do they get expelled for voting against the government? Its a regular occurence in the tory/Lib Dem coalition in power across the water

fatboypee

jmayo wrote: »

Ah FFS.
Yeah FG = ff because they lied when they said they would keep Roscommon A&E opened.
A hospital A&E that should have been shut over 20 years ago.

So it's acceptable your (now) government lied because of the subject of the lie then?

That A&E was due for closure over 20 years ago by cj haughey but for electoral support of independent candidate who stood for hospital he backed down.......
....Do any of the ones harping on about keeping their A&E, their whatever open realise how fooked we are.

Is it worth even going there with this ? The point is not financial, its about servicing a disparate community over a large area in the most effective way. NOT financially, actually saving lives. This cannot effectively done if the nearest A&E is in some points over an hour away (unless perhaps you have a time machine planned as a replacement?)

A load of nimbys who will mouth platitudes about making cuts, but when the cuts visit their inept over expensive institution they all go off crying foul.

Would these people rather that Kenny and co did nothing and just kept spending money we do not have ala the election promises of SF and the other assorted gobdaws on the left.

This, for me is political in as much as the elected government spun promises of what they would do and are now U-Turning. I for one would prefer to be able to trust the government. so yes, I'd prefer Kenny followed up on what he promised to do, not call the oppositions' questioning of his U Turn "pathetic".

I am waiting for the day when the government start taking a hatcket to the HSE hierarchy.

Err should this not have been done BEFORE removing the critical (albeit sub-standard) service from the common people ?

BTW I do think that the government should put at least another 4 or 5 fully enabled paramedic units into the area and also this whole thing highlights something I have wanted for years, a dedicated fully functional air ambulance service in every province.

Yes, like we have near me, yet UTTERLY POINTLESS from more rural communities without a road network to serve the longer transfer time to A&E facilities.

With those types of services and less reliance on A&Es for unnecessary trips with "cuts and bruises" injuries we could shut a few more decrepit A&Es.

Can you explain a bit more what you mean by "decrepit" ? My local A&E is already on short time (closes at 8pm I think), yet offers an outstanding level of care and service. Additionally the waiting time is far less than the "Centre of Excellence", oh, thats funny that. Centre of Excellence..... Warzone would be a more apt description, equally understaffed and overworked yet, somehow considered to be better than a smaller, more localised and in my view efficient A&E.

pog it

Nothing honest about him whatsoever. He made promises that weren't in his power to keep. It wouldn't surprise me if he did a deal with Enda and they've agreed to give him back whip at a later stage but Feighan will rue this day come the next election.

Padraig Mor

fatboypee wrote: »

a disparate community over a large area

There's your problem right there. Not enough people for an A+E.

fatboypee

Padraig Mor wrote: »

There's your problem right there. Not enough people for an A+E.

Perhaps we should let natural selection take its course then? Or move everyone into the cities to be closer to the A&E ? The last point of my post is the most salient however; the A&E considered a centre of excellence is actually further from it than the local A& E they proposed to close. How can we be sure a government that lied will better fund such facilities in the future once the close A&E ??

We can't.

dlofnep

Amazing at how many people defend this moving, citing thay Fine Gael have to make 'hard decisions'. Of course they do, they are the Government! It doestn't mean that it was the correct decision.

Out of curiousity, do you expect your town to also have a 50,000 all seater stadium and an international airport? What about the people who live in other towns? Do they not also have this magical inalienable right?

There is no right to an international airport, or 50,000 seater stadium. Comparing that to quick-access healthcare shows how piss-poor your argument is. To state that someone isn't entitled to such a basic healthcare service because of where they live is counter to a functioning democracy. Should we all be forced to move to Dublin, just to have accessible healthcare?

dicknorris

John Perry promised that within 100 days the breast cancer screening would be back in Sligo hospital more lies and we know how he voted last night

Cathal O wrote: »

True, but Mr. Naughten and the whole FG party knew well what their plans were, they knew the couldnt afford to keept the hospital open.
I dont know what u think Eagle Eye, but both persons here knew what their partys plan was, yet they both wanted to play on peoples heartstrings by promising this in return for a nice hefty salary, a list of expenses as long as your arm, and a nice tidy pension to keep them in private heath services not worrying over roscommons less well off.

While it is FG's policy that was at fault, the two Td's in question both knew this and yet continued to promise the impossible unknown to the electorate. I know this exact tactic was used in my local hospital (Monaghan),
Believe me, the two td's in question knew the policy their party was to follow before making careless statements that they did

ArmaniJeanss

dicknorris wrote: »

John Perry promised that within 100 days the breast cancer screening would be back in Sligo hospital more lies and we know how he voted last night

Thats hardly a lie is it?
At best it was an aspirational statement which he has as yet failed to live up to.

stevenmu

I have to respect Naughten for this. I wish all politicians would live up to the policies and views they express at election.

I actually think that the transfer of services is the right choice and the correct move for the government, but I think it's extremely dishonest to get elected on a promise and then do a complete u-turn a few months down the road.

(obviously in many cases circumstances can change, but I don't think that's the case here)

galway2007

The Roscommon people now need to push ahead with pushing the traitor Frank Feighan out of office
He made false promises to the Roscommon people and even worse he showed no loyalty to them in their time off need
People off Roscommon fight on and the rest of us shown join in

galway2007

stevenmu wrote: »

I have to respect Naughten for this. I wish all politicians would live up to the policies and views they express at election.

I actually think that the transfer of services is the right choice and the correct move for the government, but I think it's extremely dishonest to get elected on a promise and then do a complete u-turn a few months down the road.

(obviously in many cases circumstances can change, but I don't think that's the case here)

As always they have got it wrong again
I think surgery should be removed from this hospital but the A&E should be keep
If you get sick you should be bought to the A&E stabilized there and if u requires other treatment you should be sent to Galway.
Once you treatment is complete in Galway you should then be sent back to Roscommon to recover

the groutch

interesting statement by Frank Feighan

"If I had left Government last night, I believe the Government wouldn’t have lasted more than a year."

in other words, back to the old FF way of putting the party first

seamus

dlofnep wrote: »

To state that someone isn't entitled to such a basic healthcare service because of where they live is counter to a functioning democracy.

Of course, they're not being denied any entitlement to basic healthcare access, are they? It's simply not feasible to put A & E services on everyone's doorstep.

Though I'm agreed with galway2007. I think what's needed is less full-blown hospitals, and more emergency care facilities. Take all the specialist services, the acute hospitals, and redistribute them based on the population distribution.

Then change all of the existing facilities to A&E only, in a swiftcare clinic style setup. These can do things like cuts & bruises, plaster casts, etc, but they could also do emergency things to resuscitate/stabilise before bouncing someone to a larger hospital.
This means that there are more basic services available to everyone, but without having to try and maintain long-terms beds and specialist services in areas that don't have the population to support them.

later12

Einhard wrote: »

I'd have a different take on it, namely that Naughten is looking after his seat, and voting with an eye on the next election.

Who cares? That's democracy. The whole point is that he's supposed to be afraid of losing his seat, that's a big part of electoral accountability.

The problem is that more TDs are not afraid of losing their seats, because they have reason to believe that they will be voted in again and again regardless of how inefficient or dishonest they are.

I don't give a toss whether Naughten made this decision out of loyalty to his constituents, out of being true to his word, our out of fear. I suspect it is the latter, and if so, that is an example of a basic democratic principle at work.

Godge

dlofnep wrote: »

Amazing at how many people defend this moving, citing thay Fine Gael have to make 'hard decisions'. Of course they do, they are the Government! It doestn't mean that it was the correct decision.



There is no right to an international airport, or 50,000 seater stadium. Comparing that to quick-access healthcare shows how piss-poor your argument is. To state that someone isn't entitled to such a basic healthcare service because of where they live is counter to a functioning democracy. Should we all be forced to move to Dublin, just to have accessible healthcare?

You will support me then in my campaign for a full hospital with A&E facilities for Inisturk Island (pop 50-90 depending on season).

I am also launching a campaign for the Aran Islands Regional Hospital with full cancer screening facilties to be located on Inis Oirr (pop 250) the smallest of the three islands to ensure that the economy there gets a boost. Of course, smaller hospitals with 24-hr A&E facilities can be located on the other two Aran Islands.

I am disappointed though that you do not appear to support the Tory Island International Airport Project, the Inisbofin Luas line or the Lambay Island 100,000 Seater stadium for which I am trying to get Coca-Cola for the naming rights.

You see, it all depends on where you draw the line.