The Health Minister and the Ikea Generation

The Minister and the Ikea Generation.

There was a recent storm in the proverbial teacup in respect of the Minister and the designation of a site for the development of a Primary Care Centre by one of his supporters or associates within Fine Gael. Given the amount of time Dr Reilly spends embroiled in controversy over his public and private business dealings, it might not be entirely unreasonable to suspect that if the present government is to fall Dr Reilly may well pull the final Jenga piece from the pile.

In fairness to the Minister he has undoubtedly inherited a poisoned chalice from the vanquished and the vanished.  However the Minister’s difficulties are generally not associated with his difficult portfolio, but rather his financial affairs, his fiscal priorities and his difficulty in accommodating the wishes of his subordinates. I suspect that the coalition may have got the personality mix a bit wrong with the former Minister for Primary Care. Undoubtedly it has now become clear that Mr Burns works best with a Smithers, and not an opinionated Lisa Simpson as his junior colleague.  Fortunately the new Minister for Primary Care has as much experience in Primary Care (or Health for that matter), as the Minister has in conflict resolution.  Being almost entirely out of his depth Minister White cleverly conforms to the wiser political career path of; 'towing the line' and saying 'yes' when appropriate?  Primary Care has recently been annexed in to the empire, and has become a Duchy state with a loyal Duke.

When I was a teenager my first job was to bag potatoes in the rear of what was once our local shop, 'Hands Supermarket' as it was known. Some years ago the shop and the site were bought by our family GP, Dr. Reilly.  The shop was demolished and a magnificent three storied complex comprising shops, a pharmacy and a large medical clinic, (one that I have had the pleasure of working in on many occasions) was opened.  One day the medical clinic will undoubtedly make a fine primary care centre, if the owner can bypass the scandal as easily as planning objections.  

Back in the Harney era Minister Reilly had the financial acumen to recognise what the Primary Care Initiative would mean for local practices and it remains to be seen if his own building in Lusk is to be designated as a primary care centre along with that of his associate in Balbriggan.  Regardless of developments in Lusk or Balbriggan, from a financial and a business perspective we must take our hats off to the Minister.  It is just a pity that this Celtic Tiger philosophy of turning muck into millions, is utterly pathological, entirely wasted, and for the most part should have been buried with the Haughey era and Bertie's forgotten bank accounts.

That is not to say that the Minister should go, it is merely to state the obvious fact that we have the right man in the wrong place, and rather than his junior Minister storming out of the cabinet; wouldn't we be a billion or two better off if the Minister for Health was the Minister for Finance and the Troika were storming out of the office, banging the door after them, and shouting '...that's our bottom line Jim and not a penny more' ?

When it comes to Irish history isn't it always the case that we invariably unleash our greatest soldiers upon ourselves. If the Chiefs had united, Strongbow would have never got his foot in the door.  If a mere fraction of the effort that was put into the Civil War was put into the Rebellion in 1916 when the enemy of the day was sailing gunships up the Liffey, the whole country would probably be speaking Irish today?  In short, when Ireland faces a threat from abroad, the first thing we do is to counter that threat with a solid wall of disunity and a swell of bitter infighting. Our taxes bail out the banks and our youth take their English language to the former colonies.  

Government is busy storming out of the office and banging the door, whilst the Troika quietly empties the larder and watches the show.  It is too late for Eoin O'Neill to change his mind and back the winners who lost the battle but won the war... however it is not too late for Enda to see the strengths and weakness of his cabinet and give the Troika a taste of real negotiations, Dr Reilly style, but then again that would not be in keeping with the Irish paradigm of history repeating itself would it?

Accountability in our political and banking world is defined by; Lowrys, Haugheys, Ahern's, Walaces and Fitzpatricks; in like fashion the ideology behind these personalities is defined by the fiscal priorities of Dr Reilly and the the legacy of the Ahern era. We have yet to move beyond the ideal of wealth as the primary objective of life and politics.

Almost two years ago at the outset of this coalition of promises I wrote to the Standards in Public Office, to enquire into the ethics of a Minister being in receipt of a Ministerial Salary and continued benefit from a Medical card list. Dr Reilly's list is managed by a locum GP, it's income continues to go to his practice in Lusk; it pays the mortgages on his property and although the contractual details are closely guarded by the HSE  it quite possibly continues to contribute to to a bulging HSE pension, as it waits patiently for it's absentee landlord to return.  Aside from these benefit’s the Minister gets no benefits.

To be in receipt of dual pension contributions from the state, to have the mortgages paid on ones investment property by the state in addition to a Ministerial salary and a hefty Ministerial pension are all part of the perks of public office in Ireland.  Not to mention an 80k per annum tax break on the family castle as it is a listed building.  Not surprisingly the Standards Office have reassured that all of the above is entirely above board.  As Mick Wallace reminded us poor plebs not to make the mistake of mixing up "Wallace the Man and Wallace the Company".  We should not make the mistake of mixing up Minister Reilly and the Doctor Reilly who although no longer a registered medical practitioner has a large GMS list tended by a salaried locum and its income carefully minded by the HSE.

To effectively capitalise upon all available opportunities is the mark of an astute businessman. However the difficulty with health is that it is not entirely a business, and in this we have the right man in the wrong place, a financial Michael Collins doing his best work on his own people.

  

I am a firm believer that you can tell a lot about a book by its cover, and as much about an era by it’s furniture. The eighties was the Dallas generation, it was a time of frills and pelmets, puffy sofas and islands in the kitchen as well as the Caribbean. This generation however is the'Ikea Generation' and a brief walk through this hellish warehouse of screaming kids and human traffic jams, exposes one to a little of the philosophy of a generation that is coming of age. It is one of straight machined lines, of stainless steel and wood finish, plain and austere, without frills, or  pelmets.

We have been moving house recently and my fifteen year old son remarked to me that if there is one thing he has learned from his parents is; to buy nothing more than he needs and to live a materially simple and uncluttered life. This is a lesson that will assuredly earn him more happiness than six hundred points, it is the philosophy of the future, and it is refreshing to consider that one day we might actually evolve beyond the Reilly and O'Reilly ideology that appraises our prosperity and defines our national vision in the context of a no frills air-line. For politics, however this evolution will take many years. We will never teach the old dogs of politics the new tricks of a modern philosophy, and as such can only await the inevitable process of decay and evolution. 

I have yet to encounter a teenager buy a lottery ticket and dream the Dallas dream of millions, beyond ones needs. I am sure there are some out there, but I am optimistically convinced they are in the minority.  That the ideology of material wealth has almost reached its sell by date, and is not as virulent amongst those of the Ikea generation. 

Whilst many of us might sigh at the broken record of jingoism and stroke politics, of favours to developers and aspirant billionaires…(Yes Lord Sugar)  ho hum!  We can take some comfort from the fact that this is the voice of an old expired generation, one that can only be resurrected for so many times before its limbs begin to fall off. Regardless of the poor condition of the earth that will be passed onto this Ikea generation they will undoubtedly do a better job with it,  and it will at least look so much nicer without the pelmets, the frills, the plastic flowers, and the islands in the kitchen.