Saint Patrick's Day Protest In Auckland

Saint Patrick's Day Protest In Auckland

Mary Harney, the Maggie Thatcher of Ireland, should resign!

Date:

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Time:

16:30 - 18:00

Location:

Irish Consulate, Auckland- Honorary Consul General of Ireland - Level 7 Citibank Building 23 Customs Street East

Members of the Irish community living in New Zealand have organised a protest against the arrival of a controversial Government Minister, wining and dining in the Auckland Irish Consulate as a deepening health scandal burns back home.

" Mary Harney is the Irish Maggie Thatcher, hated by the people of Ireland, yet representing us in New Zealand this Saint Patrick's Day." said protest organiser Joe Carolan, an Irish activist who has been active in the union movement since he arrived in New Zealand in 1999.

"Mary Harney, according to the Evening Herald of Dublin, has refused to come home from her 15 day junket in New Zealand to deal with the Tallaght X-Ray scandal. While this scandal unfolds she and her husband with three aides are enjoying the 5 star trip at the tax payers expense."

"The shocking story from Tallaght Hospital- Over 58,000 X Rays were never reviewed by a consultant radiologist and at least two life threatening illnesses were misdiagnosed."

"The main reason is that the Health Minister, Mary Harney, did not insist there were sufficient radiologists employed. Then she literally added insult to injury, by doing nothing when reports on the scandal first emerged."

"Mary Harney is part of a political class whose philosophy is akin to the French aristocracy before the 1789 Revolution: namely, that they have a divine right to rule."

"Harney’s party, the Progressive Democrats, the Irish equivalent of ACT,  has collapsed and she has no popular mandate. She hold ministerial responsibility for public health solely because she is Mary Harney, a member of the elite political class."

"She has made it known that she will not stand in the next General Election, so she does not have to fear any future popular backlash. This total disregard for the democratic principle of ‘representing the people’ explains why she feels no compulsion to resign."

"The harsh truth is that she does not really care about public health. Her main interest in taking stewardship of this government department was to create opportunities for private medicine. Mary Harney’s mandate comes from big business – not from the people.."

"Our message to Harney is there is no place for her to run- protests will follow her to the other side of the world."

"Mary Harney does not represent our Ireland here in Aotearoa, and instead of going on foreign junkets, the money would be better spent on our health service back home."

Organised by the Connolly Club of Auckland and Socialist Aotearoa.
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