Madam, – Senator Fiona O’Malley’s staunch defence of Mary Harney (February 9th), makes unpleasant reading, especially for those unfortunate people who simply cannot afford the excessive fees charged at the private healthcare facilities so worshipped by the PDs.
It is no wonder Ms O’Malley lost her seat in the last general election and will soon lose the political party and its wreckage of policies to which she is still clinging for dear life. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Madam, — Senator Fiona O’Malley misses the point when complaining about the reception Mary Harney receives “from certain quarters” when she opens for-profit health centres.
Her former party leader was Tánaiste and remains Minister of Health of a Government that supports a grossly unfair and expensive two-tier health system.
As a public patient with a few stories to tell about my own and other family members’ experiences as public patients, may I remind Ms O’Malley that even the US is realising that the two-tier, for-profit model is now defunct, much like the senator’s own party and its now discredited free-market ideology. – Yours, etc,
JOHN PAUL CONNOLLY,
Ballinspittle,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.