Monthly Archives: January 2013

Only one person out of the 40 who applied to Minister for Health James Reilly for a place on the board of the State health watchdog body was ultimately appointed, documents show.

This was despite the fact Dr Reilly’s officials judged that the vast majority of applicants for board positions on the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) were of a high standard and only nine failed to meet the required criteria.

Of the three appointments made by Dr Reilly, one was of a person who applied through the Public Appointments Service, while the other two were appointed directly without having applied through this channel.

Earlier this week The Irish Times reported that none of the 28 people who applied to join the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) was selected by Dr Reilly. Documents showed that the Government parties divided up the appointments between them, with Fine Gael getting six and Labour three.

Nice for some.

Reilly selected only one of 40 applicants for board of State health watchdog (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3n-2fGhFI

What you may need to know.

1. Hey! Kevin Bacon did a TV show! It’s his first regular series gig.

2. It’s created by Kevin Williamson, the man behind Dawson’s Creek and the Scream movies.

3. It’s already being accused of glorifying serial killers

4. Kevin Bacon is still the centre of the universe.

Release Date: January 22 (on Sky Atlantic)

Former Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness (above) addressed the Joint Committee On Health And Children hearing on abortion legislation this afternoon.

This is what she told them.

Judge Catherine McGuinness “Doctors are not asking to be allowed to abort children who perhaps are suffering from Downs Syndrome or something like that, it’s not about that. It’s about questioning, the timing and when the child is already destined to death in the womb and that is still, I think it’s highly doubtful what the law will be.

Professor [William] Binchy [Pro-life campaigner who had spoken earlier] has said that if we’re going to do this, we’re going to have no requirement for due care for the child. I don’t believe that legislators are going to bring in laws that would approach it in an uncaring manner like that.

I think that you have the opportunity, if you are approaching it as you suggest you’re going to, by having an outline law and regulations that you have the opportunity to which you should do, is to look at the questions with due care for the child, as balanced, as is required against the life of the mother.

That can be dealt with in the regulations. And, in the end, when we look at the values of Irish society, and whether you’re going to change them, I think that you understand that what I’m saying is that our values are considerably more subtle than you might think, when you look at, overall, what we do about life as opposed to what is a sort of ideal, which we’ve said before is and then when we come up to the human dilemma, what do we really do about it?

And I would say that, I really do plead with you not to be too affected by a kind of bullying approach, or, from either side of the question, from either the ultra liberal who are depicted as pro-abortion or from the extreme, what describes themselves as pro-life, who are trying to narrow the law, and think about where the middle ground is and what the main, majority of your constituents feel.”

She’s 87.

Eighty seven.

Earlier: So Why ARE Women With Non-Viable Pregnancies Being Forced To Travel To The UK?

What Rhona Said

(RTE)