Guillotined Health Bill spills blood and guts in chamber

DÁIL SKETCH: FOLLOWING THE "sausagegate" settlement, there was a virtual stampede in the Dáil canteen yesterday morning as everyone…

DÁIL SKETCH:FOLLOWING THE "sausagegate" settlement, there was a virtual stampede in the Dáil canteen yesterday morning as everyone sought their post-recall pork products. It was not to be. As one observer pointed out, the deal was only done at 1am, so Dáil rasher fans had to wait a further 24 hours for their favourite breakfast option.

But the compensation deal agreed with the pig processors got a little airing on the Order of Business. First to mention it was Fine Gael's Richard Bruton, who asked if the €180 million would be paid through a levy on the pigmeat sector and he demanded a thorough investigation by the agriculture committee.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, who earlier gave Santa a bad name by talking about Ministers making lists for spending cuts "and checking them twice", took a different stance.

He noted the Government could find €180 million for this issue but not €10 million for the cervical cancer vaccine.

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This brought Opposition "hear hears" and marked much of the day's talking point - the Health Bill - which changes the rules for the medical card for those aged 70 and older and removes universal entitlement.

Madame La Guillotine got more than a few mentions, initially in the context of the Government plan to curtail the medical cards. The legislation was introduced in the Dáil on Wednesday and whizzed through the Dáil yesterday because of the guillotine.

The normally mild-mannered Richard Bruton took a rather bloodthirsty view. If people had their way "the guillotine would be applied to the necks of the 15 Ministers who sat around the Cabinet table and approved this proposal".

Labour health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan echoed that view. "Several hundred thousand pensioners would probably line-up to pull the lever on that guillotine".

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin went back to the theme of "checking lists twice". He highlighted again the €6.9 million spent paying GPs at a rate of €690 for 10,000 patients who were dead. That amount of public money squandered, he said, was "almost the entire amount that the Minister claims this measure was designed to save".

The FF man in the wilderness, now Independent Joe Behan, renewed his opposition to the Bill and appealed to his former party colleagues: "I ask you, I appeal to you, I beg you" not to remove universal entitlement.

A vain appeal as the Bill was passed by a comfortable 74 to 62 with the votes of two men on crutches - former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael's John Deasy cancelling each other out.

After the electronic vote, Fine Gael whip Paul Kehoe toyed with the Government side. When he stood to speak, to catcalls and heckling, there was an assumption that he would force them all to walk through the lobbies. He said instead: "Can I warn the people opposite to be careful on the way home, 'cos the over-70s are out to get you". He probably didn't need to remind them.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times