Greedy people like Maitiú O’ Tuathail, Leo Varadkar and their friends should be nowhere near healthcare settings.
They are clearly more interested in than they are in public health. But unfortunately, the private healthcare industry makes it very attractive for the profit-hungry to elbow in.
The revelations at the weekend are alarming, not just because of the depths of Leo Varadkar’s treachery, but because they reveal just how much of our healthcare is down to connections, friend in high places and “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangements.
The scandal over Varadkar’s leak broke because businessman, Chay Bowes spoke to the Village magazine after he ‘saw how crucial political connections with senior Fine Gael figures and HSE executives are to the delivery of supposedly patient-centric healthcare.’
Bowes had wanted to get a contract from the HSE for his private company, Community Hospital Ireland, but ran into opposition.
He learnt that other private operators ‘peddle for influence’ with the government and the HSE to get contracts.
One such person is Maitiú Ó Tuathail, a friend of Leo Varadkar to whom Varadkar leaked the confidential contract between the state and the IMO, a rival organisation of O Tuathail’s organisation NAGP.
In fact, O Tuathail has such a direct line with the Tánaiste that when he learned of Bowes company, he confidently told him “I can get this in front of Leo (Varadkar) and Simon (Harris).”
Connections are being used to win lucrative contracts from the HSE and the public purse is being ripped off.
We need a fully publicly run National Health Service that removes the profit motive from our healthcare system, so we can say good riddance to O Tuathail, Varadkar, and the lot!
As long as it is run for profit, our health system will attract the wrong people and the health of the Irish public will be sacrificed, as we have already seen in the pandemic. See less
Greedy people like Maitiú O’ Tuathail, Varadkar and their friends should be nowhere near healthcare settings.
They are clearly more interested in than they are in public health. But unfortunately, the private healthcare industry makes it very attractive for the profit-hungry to elbow in.
The revelations at the weekend are alarming, not just because of the depths of Leo Varadkars treachery, but because they reveal just how much of our healthcare is down to connections, friend in high places and “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangements.
The scandal over Varadkar’s leak broke because businessman, Chay Bowes spoke to the Village magazine after he ‘saw how crucial political connections with senior Fine Gael figures and HSE executives are to the delivery of supposedly patient-centric healthcare.’
Bowes had wanted to get a contract from the HSE for his private company, Community Hospital Ireland, but ran into opposition.
He learnt that other private operators ‘peddle for influence’ with the government and the HSE to get contracts.
One such person is Maitiú Ó Tuathail, a friend of Leo Varadkar to whom Varadkar leaked the confidential contract between the state and the IMO, a rival organisation of O Tuathail’s organisation NAGP.
In fact, O Tuathaill has such a direct line with the Tánaiste that when he learned of Bowes company, he confidently told him “I can get this in front of Leo (Varadkar) and Simon (Harris).”
Connections are being used to win lucrative contracts from the HSE and the public purse is being ripped off.
We need a fully publicly run National Health Service that removes the profit motive from our healthcare system, so we can say good riddance to O Tuathail, Varadkar, and the lot!
As long as it is run for profit, our health system will attract the wrong people and the health of the Irish public will be sacrificed, as we have already seen in the pandemic.