Labour Chief Whip Emmet Stagg TD speaking in Westport recently committed the Labour Party to reversing the proposals of the Minister for Health Mary Harney to force the sale of the homes of old people in long term care.

Deputy Stagg was addressing the members and friends of the Westport Branch as part of the celebrations marking the 55 years of service to the Labour Party by Westport Party stalwart Michael Joe Lavelle.

Deputy Stagg said: “This is the latest is a series of attacks on the elderly by the PD/ FF government. Minister Harney proposes that the family home be included in the means of an old person in care and that the debt be collected after their death.

“This is enough to put the heart cross-ways in any older citizen who is feeling unwell and we should all remember that we will all reach that stage at some time.

“The Labour Party rejects any proposal to include the family home in any means test. It is not used in calculating means for any other services, be it medical cards, pensions, or third level grants.

“Labour in government will reverse this cruel decision that is causing widespread stress and worry to our elder citizens by excluding the family home from any means test and this one in particular.

“The state has a responsibility to our senior citizens, it was they who laid the foundations of the wealthy country we now enjoy; they paid for their homes in tough times and it is now entirely unacceptable that they would be forced to dispose of them to pay their medical costs. That decision must be reversed.

“As a society we will have to decide who is entitled to medical care and who is not and we will also have to decide how it is to be funded.

“It seems this question has largely been decided for the general population. No matter how rich one is, they can get full hospital treatment with specialists, surgeons and nurses for a maximum payment of €400 a year. However if you are old and sick you have to sell your house to do so. Labour will seek to end that cruel anomaly.

“I know that Labour’s Candidate in Mayo Harry Barrett is out there campaigning on this issue which is at the heart of people’s concerns and in this he has the full support of Westport’s Councillor Keith Martin. Harry and Keith are working hard every day on behalf of the people of Mayo and I trust the people of Mayo will give Harry Barrett their full support in the upcoming election. Mayo needs a Labour TD to fight its corner on this issue and of combating the decade of neglect that Mayo has endured at the hands of this government.”

"a practice that everybody did in the country, let's be very frank and honest about it, and not be prudish about it"

---Bertie Ahern TD talking about his signing of blank cheques drawn on the Fianna Fail Party's Leader's account for Charles Haughey.

An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, is developing a Nixonesque paranoia in relation to the Irish Times expose on the cash he received from friends, aka the €50,000 "dig out" and the "gift" payment in Manchester of €8,000.





Bertie has also complained about a conspiracy against him (read that here) which is being conducted, according to Bertie Ahern, by "those in politics who have agendas. There are those out there who are personally out to get you all of the time."
He has also complained about the media coverage of these payments. Asked to sum up 2006 at his annual Christmas Address to the nation Mr Ahern said his treatment by the media over the issue of the payments was unfair and accused some people of operating an agenda aimed at tripping him up.
The Taoiseach is keeping a close eye on the media and he recently observed that in relation to the reports on his acceptance of payments "For 22 days of the year I got the national newspapers, for the first time in my 30-year career, for 18 headlines in a row. One national newspaper gave me 16 headlines out of 18."
Ahern's claims of unfair treatment by the media, his being targeted by a conspiracy and his promise to "bury" those responsible for exposing the payments can only be seen as attempts to distract from the real controversy.
The facts are that Bertie Ahern received two payments "from friends" in 1994 and 1995 totalling €50,000 which he says he regarded as loans but then admitted that in 10 years he had not repaid a cent.
In 1994 he received another payment in the form of a "whip-round" "gift" of €8,000 from 25 businessmen in Manchester. As he received this outside of the country he says he did not need to pay tax on it.
Bertie Ahern has taken money while a serving minister of our government, that is a fact and it was wrong. The scandal and media hype surrounding Ahern's finances are his own fault, of his own creation and the media's inquiries and coverage has been entirely justified.
Talk of conspiracy, persecution by the media and threats to "bury" the whistleblower is disturbing coming from the lips of the Taoiseach. It is reminiscent of Nixon's behaviour in the months before he was finally forced to leave power over the Watergate scandal. Nixon was full of threats, casting around for those responsible for exposing his wrong-doing and denying his role and responsibility to the media, his staff and those close to him.


Like Nixon, Bertie Ahern is casting about for a scapegoat, blaming those with "agendas", denying his culpability and has already given us his Checkers speech on RTE with Brian Dobson (though he used his daughters and not his dog to hide behind and to milk for sympathy).

Bertie Ahern is guilty of low standards in high office, he compounds this with talk of conspiracy, blaming the media while refusing to acknowledge that he did wrong, but it is when he starts talking about "burying" people that he goes too far.

"I'd love to know. And I'd bury them. But I don't know. But somebody was. Somebody had fairly calculated and manipulatively planned this out. But I don't know. I could get lucky some day if I find out."

---Bertie Ahern TD, Taoiseach, talking about the person responsible for revealing to the Irish Times that he took money in the mid 1990s from friends totalling €50,000.

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