The Pat Kenny Show

Who is this angry seal Pat is talking to ?

Was that the health insurance fella?

Rant Alert

That drives me absolutely nuts - every few months they're on these shows, spouting gibberish that is absolutely meaningless unless it's actually your particular situation they're referring to.

The bigger issue is why are the health insurers allowed to completely bamboozle the buying public by running literally hundreds (if not thousands at this stage, given they never retire a policy, just start another one) of almost identical policies alongside each other, with meaningless names that give no clue as to benefits/downsides.

It's the pointy end of sharp practice with bells on, and nobody seems even vaguely inclined to call a halt and force them to be transparent in their sales techniques. I can't think of any other market that's allowed carry on like this - even Ryanair were made to stop hiding charges within complicated booking systems (although I have my doubts about them again lately, but that's another day's work).

And interviews like that have to just increase the stress on harrassed punters who can't possibly be expected to be across all the policies on offer by all the insurance companies in all their guises. The fact that yer man says "you should look at x policy from y company, but ask about the corporate policy even though you're a private citizen" doesn't mean there's not 10 other even better policies out there. Or will be, from next week. And if I have one more child, or no children, or am a bit older - what should I be looking at? Or asking for?

It's an absolute disgrace, and having those fellas on for 10 minutes spouting names and numbers at a rate of knots does absolutely nothing to rectify the shambles of a situation.

/rant

i have tried to get my parents to ring the health insurance crowd to have a look at theirs. They are into their seventies and are reluctant to change (with same insurance for many years). I try telling them they could save some money but hard to get them to listen !!

Thank them.

Those kids will pay your pension.

Hopefully and stay in Ireland too.

Who knows really, maybe I'm presuming too much.

Paul Harrington was fascinating as always on the history of the song - but for once, his rendition did absolutely nothing for me. It was absolutely fine, but there is something about the wailing voice of Nanci Griffiths that elevates it far beyond. It didn't sound half the song with him singing it.

I couldn't listen to too much of her in one go - but my goodness, she completely owns that song!