Yesterday’s Sunday Business Post
Yesterday.
The Sunday Business Post published a lengthy interview with former chief of the HSE Tony O’Brien, his first interview since he left the organisation in May, following the cervical check scandal.
In the interview, Mr O’Brien said the Minister for Health Simon Harris acted like a “frightened little boy” during the CervicalCheck controversy and said he’s a weak minister obsessed with media coverage and “runs scared of headlines”.
He said the Public Accounts Committee acted like “a kangaroo court”, and he specifically accused Sinn Féin of being “destructive”.
He said Sinn Féin had “effectively swapped the balaclava for parliamentary privilege”, adding that “the bile and vitriol with which they attack public servants continuously is staggering”.
He also said he hoped a “sense of decorum and fairness would return to Irish political life and to the mainstream Irish media”.
Further to this…
Limerick mum-of-two Vicky Phelan has tweeted her thoughts on the interview.
In April Ms Phelan sued a US laboratory for misreading her cervical smear test and received a settlement of €2.5million in the High Court.
After Ms Phelan went public on the matter, it emerged that 221 women with cervical cancer, whose previous smear tests were reviewed after they received a diagnosis of cancer, were not told that their smear tests had actually been recategorised on review and that they could have been advised to have an earlier follow-up or warned of an increased risk of developing cancer.
Meanwhile, Cork dad-of-two Stephen Teap, whose late wife Irene was one of the 221 women, also responded to the article…
Head of the "Old Boys Club" gets taken out, read his bitter response here in this interview. "HSE’s initial response to the crisis had been a trainwreck", who was the leader of this "trainwreck"? Where are the questions on his poor leadership skills @susmitchellSBP #Cervicalcheck https://t.co/HMfZUetqPC
— Stephen Teap (@Stephenteap) November 4, 2018
"In the HSE they are used to getting trounced but they are not used to it in the Dept of Health" in today's @thesundayindo ,here lies the problem,when the Nation sides with the victims, those protected by system of zero accountability become "furious" #cervicaclcheckdebacle
— Stephen Teap (@Stephenteap) November 4, 2018
Reminds me of the content of what was actually leaked in the Scally Enquiry, Scallys personal opinion of there being no need for Commission of Investigation, in other words the Civil Servants won't be investigated! Any Wonder that is what they choose to leak!! @thesundayindo
— Stephen Teap (@Stephenteap) November 4, 2018
And Lorraine Walsh, from Galway, who is also one of the 221 women and who cannot have children as a result of her cervical cancer, also responded…
Pity after all this time he couldn’t take responsibility for the disaster that is the HSE, that he lead and desperately failed at leading! Shame on you Tony O’Brien, you made me sick and now 6 years later you make me feel sick! https://t.co/pmdHKHwcTw
— Lorraine Walsh (@LorcallWalsh) November 4, 2018
…in fairness, swapping balaclavas for parlimentary privilige is a great line…but you should be careful what you wish for…better not have any skeletons hidden…
That plus, public servants are absolutely part of the problem.
Inept civil servants fester in every department and are rewarded handsomely. There is still always a clamour to get into the civil service because of job security and pension. There’s f all people going in with the mindset that it will be good to help the country at large.
I have worked with civil servants, public servants, and in private industry.
And I could match every inept civil servant with an equally inept private employee.
For every hardworking civil servant there was a hardworking private employee.
Ditto, and I’ve met some superb civil servants – deeply honest, stringent in their work, intelligent.
Cynical from Tony O’Brien. He only threw that in about balaclavas in the hope to try to garner some support for the crap he was spewing from opposing party’s.
O’Brien was the person who inexplicably out sourced cervical checks to vastly inferior US firms from highly competent European firms.
Then when he is effectively fired he gets a nice cushy job in the US. Considering the dogs dinner he made of the HSE why would a private company hire him? I’m struggling to understand how this happened. Any suggestions?
Inexplicably? It was money. It’s cheaper to outsource. And we were in the depths of austerity, the IMF were here. And it was cheaper (in the short term at least) to outsource.
You say inferior. Scally says all three labs meet international standards. I think I’ll trist him over a random.
The HSE was a basket case before he took over. I’ve no idea if it got any better or worse under his tenure.
bloody nerve of him