By Jimmy Rhatigan, Editor Kilkenny Observer
THE ARROGANCE of our senior politicians in particular knows no bounds.
It was only a matter of time before the egos of the big and not so big wigs in Fine Gael would put a spanner in the works of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and his colleagues.
The word now is that there is a stand-off between the heavyweights of FG and Dr Holohan and his medical mates.
Stealing the thunder, hogging the headlines at the expense of government ministers or TDs is certainly not a good idea in our country.
Taoiseach Leo Vardakas has had a long courtship with newspaper, television and radio and sooner rather than later the question was bound to be popped.
‘Hey guys and gals, this bloke is stealing the limelight. It is time to up the ante,” or something similar may have been uttered in a scrum-like huddle after a Fine Gael pow-wow.
Whether he was displaying his colourful socks or posing for TV cameras, Varadkar had become top dog at photo opportunities.
By the very nature of his onerous task, Dr Holohan, more by accident than by design, became the man of the moment.
Fridge to a magnet
By doing his job, making the tough decisions on our health, the doc naturally became what a fridge door is to a magnet.
It seems that ministers and Dáil Deputies who to now were damn happy to be guided by our medical experts feared that the medics may be getting too big for their boots.
What were up to recently ‘our big two’ political parties, FF and FG, neither known for its competence or democratic leanings, no longer rule the roost.
That has changed.
Insatiable lust
Following Sinn Fein’s burst into the big time we now have a ‘big three’.
As we have found out the latter doesn’t sit comfortably with FF and FG who have lambasted us for generations.
The battle to keep SF away from the top table of government tells its own story.
And as if it wasn’t bad enough those with an insatiable lust for power now have yet another threat to their dominance of a media that sadly has more than its share of mediocre journalists who give political power brokers an easy ride.
With some notable exceptions, very few of our writers or broadcasters ask the pertinent questions any more.
Some may have attended the Vladimir Putin School of Media Studies.
That some caretaker government ministers and TDs may have business interests, we know (snigger, snigger), will not influence their efforts to open up our country post haste.
Of course we must work to make life a little more comfortable for all of our people, most notably our cocooning (sweet word for being locked up) elderly.
We are at the heart of a life and death battle with Coronavirus.
Some would seem to be more anxious to make it a life and debt war.
Yes, we have to take our economy and our very future into consideration.
But not at the expense of keeping our Grim Reaper busy.
Fine Gael has been giving us a rough time for years. For the most part it has not exactly covered itself in glory.
Imagine the chaos it could cause if allowed to make life and death decisions.
If you have a pain in your head or a nagging ear ache, you don’t call a plumber.
