Tokyo Kittens and Urban Cowboys.

The words and phrases we use tell a lot about how we think about our pets. I meet owners whose fluffy bundle of joy has come from a "rehoming centre". Pets in these centres get a second chance because animal welfare advocates, in theory match animal to owner. A "rehomed" dog is implicitly part of the family."Adoption centres" are widespread. "Adoption" has a legal-sounding tone with connotations of responsibility and provision of care. "Dog Pounds" have austere echoes in our minds. They are the last chance saloon,akin to prison's death row for strays in which searching owners are in a race against time.Ten days is the usual grace period given in Ireland's crowded pounds before a dog is euthanased unless claimed.

What is significant about the words rehoming and adoption is their link to children. They have a borrowed use in animal welfare where it is understood that animals,like children inhabit our world and are our dependents. But the commonest term used in animal welfare,"rescue" is the most emotive of these words. Whether a "rescue dog" or a "rescue centre",there are negative connotations about the animal's previous relations with humans. Rescue dogs which are saved into new homes from neglect, abuse or euthanasia,are a growing phenomenon because animal abuse and neglect remains part of society.

In some countries vets encountering non-accidental injury such as obvious cruelty or neglect to an animal are legally obliged to report this.The reason why was illustrated this week by a story in the New York Times linking animal abuse to same household abuse of family members. Youngsters with "aggressive conduct disorder"(sic), according to research the NYT cited, become desensitised to cruelty and suffering by practice of animal abuse. Researchers looked at MRI scans of groups shown images of pain and suffering. Troubled youngsters within the study exhibited heightened activity in the brain's "reward centre" while viewing cruelty and abuse. The report concluded that some people have impaired systems of empathy and crucially that part of the brain involved in self-regulation switches off as empathy is eroded.

This report is not the first of its kind.Many serial killers began in their childhood with animal cruelty. Animal abuse is now in fact proven to be gateway behaviour which on a continuum of sociopathic relations with sentient beings is a stage towards cruelty to humans. There are also hopeful studies that have shown how empathy can be rekindled by caring for animals. Learning to relate to sentient beings such as horses can improve damaging behaviours towards humans. Equine therapy programs where teenagers muck out, groom horses and learn to ride are now common in urban areas all over the world including Ireland and form part of accepted interventions for troubled teens.

Why then are punishments and sentences for animal abuse and neglect not more severe? Animal life is valued so much less than human in our value system and perhaps rightly so. But proof of a behaviour gateway to murder, rape, domestic violence and child abuse strengthens the argument for severe addressing at source of sociopaths and violent criminals. This approach is an auhoritarian view of crime and punishment. But consider the problem from the liberal perspective. If you believe that most abusers can be rehabilitated, deserve a second chance and that early interventions can and do work, the question becomes this.Why are equine therapy programs,empathy building programs involving animal companionship, NOT a widespread and integral part of our legal justice system? The reason why not is because that debate is ongoing and unresolved. Prison rehabilitates some, if not others. Intervention programs help some also, if not others. And the most draconian penalties, even the ultimate capital penalty fail to provide an ultimate deterrent to some perpetrators of heinous violent crime.

I believe piecemeal interventions and a prison service which attempts rehabilitation in an authoritarian environment are only reactive answers to violent crime. We know animal contact helps us learn moral behaviour and build empathic relationships therefore schools should provide pet interactions or even contain small pet zoos. Young offenders institutions could teach dog grooming and animal training. Prisons could incorporate responsible pet care as therapy for recovering addicts and for those most socially disconnected. Meanwhile new large stable yards as equine therapy centres in the worst urban areas of the country should be properly funded. The urban cowboys of West Dublin, Ballymun, Limerick city have a culture already of horse ownership which it would be easy to officially endorse and build on. The earlier the young bareback riders of deprived urban areas can be helped swap kalashnikov for saddle and whip the more likely that cycles of feuds and poverty can be broken.

The case for rehabilitation by animal therapy is more than a liberal do-gooder delusion.There is a need in people which animal companionship can satisfy.Peata is an Irish organisation which brings pets on visits to nursing homes, hospitals and hospices where patients are shown to benefit medically from regular contact with dogs. Peata can be reached through the DSPCA.

Overcrowded urban living paradoxically enforces isolation. The need for animal companionship can be as powerful as the need for contact with other humans. In the city of Tokyo where cramped apartment dwelling is the norm, pet ownership is problematic. To fill the void Kitten Cafes have sprung up which are "staffed" by cats and kittens ready to play with customers who pay by the hour. Kitten Cafes can also provide customers with a "doggie date" as they can rent you a dog for an hourly-rated walk or play date.This type of pet ownership by proxy is a Japanese solution to an urban Japanese problem.What void would a "doggie date" fill in a Tokyo commuter's life? Perhaps the gunslingers of Moyross and Southill experience the same void and could be helped by equine or pet therapy interventions.Make love not war or trade ponies not bullets?

When is a cough not just a cough? .

...When a Cough is more than just a Cough.

Climate change.Some of us are sick hearing about it.A growing number of sceptics are beginning to ask just what's all the fuss about. God knows we could do with a bit of global warming around these parts, since the ash cloud wont let us leave the island anyway. Eco-sceptics you could call these people(did I just make up that word?) who couldn't care less about the polar bears, the icebergs or the ozone layer. To these people however, I have two words of news today.
Angiostrongylus Vasorum.

Scientists love words of Latin mystery. Their own secret code to confuse the punters. The real mystery however is Nature. Just when Vets like me think we have the job sussed, Nature moves the goal posts. Or as in this case, moves the Climate. Angiostrongylus is what you and I can call Dog Lungworm. And it's here. It usedn't to be in Ireland , but it's here now.

Angiostrongylus was once known as French Heartworm and was confined to warmer regions. One more thing the French have given us;Sarkozy, Dog Lungworms and Thierry Henri (quel horreur!).This Lungworm which is carried by the Slugs and Snails in our gardens is now infecting greater numbers of Irish Dogs because wetter and warmer Summers have seen a massive recent rise in the Slug, Snail and Frog populations in Ireland.

French Heartworm which we now call Dog Lungworm has spread to Britain and Ireland as global warming has brought warmer weather allowing the Angiostrongylus Worm to survive further north. More Slugs, Snails and Frogs now carry the Lungworm and increasing numbers of dogs in Tallaght, Leixlip, Lucan , Wexford and Kildare have been reported by Vets to be infected with this sometimes fatal parasite.

So how do dogs become infected? Tell tale slimy Slug and Snail mucus trails which you find at this time of year on garden paths, on the dog's toys and feedbowls are full of Lungworm Larvae. Dogs are curious rummaging scavengers. Your lovable mutt with the palate and appetite of Homer Simpson may ingest Frogs, Snails, Slugs or even their mucus trail to become infected with Larvae which migrate through blood vessels to the Lungs where damage occurs.

YOU are not at risk from Dog Lungworm but your dog unfortunately is. Infected dogs can suffer fatal Lung Bleeding, Pneumonia, Anaemia and other clinical disorders. Infection begins with a cough, breathlessness or fatigue. Vets may then observe blood clotting anomalies and/or Anaemia.Severe cases can progess to signs of vomitting, seizures or diarrhoea. The good news is that this modern problem has a very modern prevention and cure.

A simple spot-on remedy which your Vet can prescribe will deal with infection. Importantly the same spot-on is recommended monthly by Vets like myself as prevention against not only Lungworm but also fleas, Lice, ear Mites and other creepy nasties. Advocate from Bayer, for example, is licensed to give just this peace of mind to dog owners. Vets all agree that prevention is safer than cure. If Angiostrongylus Vasorum are two words too many, then one word Advocate is enough. Just ask your Vet.
Des Groome,
Groome PetVets,
South Green road,
Kildare.

Ultra-Marathon Man leaves his mark

When I drifted away from race-riding eight or nine years ago after having too many falls, riding too many slow horses and eating too few good dinners over the previous ten years ( !)there was a void in my life for a while. I needed a competitive outlet and a routine of self-challenge and outdoor exercise. I began to run. First a few miles at a time, then seven or eight miles a few times a week. Given the mind and body of the man in question it wasnt long before I turned to Marathon running. Thus began the first of many journeys. Most of those journeys ended with a medal, a sense of self reaffirmed, an extra lesson learned, and ended at the finish line of another 26 mile run in a city or on a mountain somewhere. There is a spirituality in the mindset of the self-improvement, the self-discipline that becomes part of the runners' world. Like the separateness that becomes part of the life of the committed cyclist or jockey. It was an odd type of separateness for a gregarious open communicator like myself, but it was part of a routine of challenge and endeavour that had been part of my life since I first sat on a horse. And I suppose I am no more or less of a contradiction of a man than anyone.
I read a book several years ago that inspired me and led me to deliver several motivational speeches about the power of goal setting. The story of Dean Karnazes, possibly the greatest endurance runner since Pheidippides. A man more than ordinary who inspires in ways that the untouchable great athletes fail to inspire a mere mortal athlete of flat feet as I indeed was; Dean inspires because as an ordinary advertising executive at the age of 30, he turned his face to finding what he looked for in life, and did so as a family man and fundraiser, with the focus, but without the selfishness that typifies many great acheivers.
Dean's creed;
Run when you can
Walk if you have to
Crawl if you must
Just never give up
I will post my speech about the power of goalsetting some time. I will also post the tale of the journey to the finish line in the Dublin Marathon 2003, my first full marathon finish.
For today though the story is of a bionic hip. The runs and falls have taken their toll; I have to have surgery to remodel my right hip joint in a few weeks. The next marathon I finish will be at a walk! Somebody famous said" Its not the years, its the mileage..." A phrase definitely applicable to me in my current broken down lame state.
But ask me was it worth it?
Every step of the way!

Rip off Ireland.... not RIP just yet.

At Groome PetVets I have reduced the price of many of our key services in the last ten months.
I began with a pre-Christmas offer of a free microchip with every booster.
In February I looked at our price list critically and reduced the price of six key services by one third. In July I addressed the fall off in week-day customer numbers by introducing a deal of one third off everything -for OAPs- on tuesday and wednesday. In August I have begun a campaign to reverse the decline in preventative pet health care ( for example Vaccination numbers are well down) by introducing a Loyalty card for booster vaccination and puppy primary vaccination and a clubcard for Propak pet food.
The unfortunate fact though is that the only reason I can afford to make these price changes is because my pay roll costs have halved by my reduction in staff numbers from 15 , just a year ago, to only 8 working in the practice now. Those now working at Groome PetVets provide a better sevice to our clients in many ways and do so more efficiently and cost effectively. That I can now identify those improvements is symptomatic of the difficulties the entire economy created for itself by the high cost-spiral which we all contributed to and accepted- then passed on to customers. That I was able to radically shift business strategy and realign staff to new behaviours and a new business culture is a reflection of the flexibility that small private sector business can take advantage of when there is a will and need for change.
However I am only in control of parts of my own cost base and most of my costs of doing business have not reduced and some have even increased. Animal remedies and medicines comprise about thirty percent of my costs. The major medical wholesalers and manufacturers increased prices by between 4 and 8 percent in September/October '08 and have not reduced prices since. The markets two main specialist pet foods increased prices in October 08 and april 09 respectively and needless to say did not reduce prices as the economy further shrank into deflation this summer. Energy and communications costs are often cited as having fallen this year. In practice however I have found that the newer entrants to these markets tout for business with lower base charges but running charges will amount to about the same month by month- and I have tested this by moving my service around. Despite the ongoing lowerECB base interest rates, Bank overdraft rates and business charges remain punitive within the big two in the Irish bank market. Commercial rates have not reduced as budget-stressed local authorities seek revenue from the limited sources available. Many small businesses are simply unwilling to pay rates this year and will remain in arrears of rates, I predict into next year and the year after, as the rates bill joins a pile under a paper weight on the owner-manager's desk. My PRSI contributions have not reduced, neither has the rate of VAT I am required to pay and then pass on to my customers. Rents have reduced as the smaller commercial property owners have become increasingly anxious to keep their tenants- though unfortunately many retailers and other small business tenants are now falling behind in their rents, while in many sectors the concept of upward only rate review remains the norm. Rising waste disposal costs, implimentation of parking charges even in small towns, consistently high motor fuel costs, road toll costs and so on- these all form parts of the cost base of the Irish small business and can broadly be blamed on either the pressures of the macro-economy OR the pressures of government costs- boh of which are being brought to bear on the SME sector as externalities beyond our/my control.
In the macro- economy world business forces are governed by multinationals with revenues often in excess of a small country's GDP- these forces now must extract the penalty for share-holder driven growth strategy from wherever they can. In the case of our budget obsessed Irish government; government and public sector costs- driven up by years of appeasing unions amidst complacency about ongoing revenue- will be brought down by Bord Snip implimentations , but will be brought down slowly In the mean time small business have been targeted to foot the bill.
Recent media reports about the demise of "rip-off Ireland" may be greatly exaggerated. I believe balance within our economy cant be acheived until Banks, Government, Government employees, Trade Unions and Share-holder driven Big Business bring their own cost base and ransom-like tariffs into line with the new economic reality that small businesses envisage.
There is an appetite for change of the political landscape in Ireland and some debate on the need for a new radicalism in political thinking. I believe that radicalism needs to come from the centrist mindset of middle society. Those who believe in neo-liberalism but wont stand for free market control by the big business economics of the Thatcher, Reagan, Karl Rove/Bush tradition any longer. This is very much radicalism with a small r. I believe we must be very careful not to allow the debate for change to be ambushed by Left , or right, ideological forces who if allowed grow to become relevant could polarise the electoral process, create dysfunctional and paralysed coalition government and alienate much needed foreign investors. In the face of the body politic's poor handling of public relations, seeming imperviousness to the plight of indigenous small business, tardy decision making and those continued embarrassing revelations about expenses and God knows what else opportunists on the socialist fringe in particular now have the climate to thrive. But I believe as a small business owner and employer that their agenda for self-interest would prove as damaging as those big business forces now hoist by their own petard, though still looking for the rest of us to pay!

Des Groome.

Co-operative marketing; Helping those who help themselves.

Kildare Chamber of Commerce voucher book is a resounding local success. Participating Local businesses report increased footfall. Local consumers are enthusiastic about the novel offers available and the value they can now find for everything from Pizzas to PC Doctor to Pet Health.
Households can use up their voucher book over the coming months and develop the all important habit of visiting our vibrant service provider and small enterprise based town centre.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce will launch a new book in the autumn to create a pre-Christmas shopping lead-up in Kildare town and to help our members help customers by giving real LOCAL value for money.
The Co-op movement sustained a generation in rural Ireland in the past. Co-ops helped farmers sell their produce, helped creameries acheive the volume needed to compete with imported produce, gave a retail outlet to rural households.
Kildare Chamber of Commerces voucher scheme is not original , but it does represent a new form of Co-op movement. Co-operative marketing.
The next level of Co-operative marketing has also now arrived to Kildare. A group trading as www.iBuyVouchers.com has the potential to help further business growth and promote customer loyalty.
Signing your business up will place your discount offer on a database for anyone to print or download and avail of -as an incentive to become a customer or a visitor to your town. Credit card style loyalty cards will be sold for three euro in each ibuy participating business. The same card sold in each member business can be used in any other business listed with the ibuy network to avail of their special iBuy member only offer.
An iBuy card holder going on holiday to Galway could look up restaurants linked to the scheme and perhaps eat every night at a special offer price while on holidays.
An iBuy card holder visiting Kildare village or the National Stud could buy a new suit on Kildare 's market square, availing of an iBuy member card offer- and enjoy iBuy card holder benefits in one of Kildares feted hostelries before heading home after a successful day trip.
As Kildare Chamber Chairman I am encouraging all our business members to join this co-operative marketing network AND I encourage consumers and householders to pick up their iBuy 3euro Loyalty card today.
Schemes like this can harness the potential of the small local business sector to help each other.
This is the type of Grass-Roots empowerment that helped Ireland conquer economic, social and political deprivation many times before in our past and can equally see us through the trials of today.

Des Groome

Those who will rebuild.

I gravitated towards an interesting looking character at a business function in Portlaoise recently. He was about my own age and wearing a good suit and tie in the manner of a man who does a days work for a living. I joked that we had the same tailor. He replied that it looked like we also shared a barber. Common ground quickly established, economics and politics- locally- we then explored at length. Fianna Fail were hammered in Portlaoise in the Locals; the state of the local small business sector is dire; Cowen was at an opening in the town recently and spoke well, impressed many and left a feeling of optimism in his wake- what the hell is going on up in hq Fianna Fail?- Why isnt he visible, involved, spreading that feeling nationally?. I have debated these and similiar questions, over a pint or at work or at cumann meeting, many times recently.
Guards and prison officers, civil servants and teachers, these are the voters who punished the local Fianna Fail councillors in Portlaoise, Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Tullamore and of course Dublin itself. The backbone of the country and the frontline workers of our social and public sector who must now take a cut to help correct the foolish inflationary spiral driven forward by a Public Private Partnership of one dimensional trade unionists and Politicians who learnt their economics on the election canvas in Clara and Clonliffe Road. The PPP with its annual increments served Begg, OConnor et al and which now can be shown to have done its beneficiaries a disservice.
My Portlaoise small businessman had a workforce of twenty in a small engineering works which served the building trade and grew to a fleet of 5 jeeps, with often several on-site projects, and two units in a business park noisy and busy for the last eight years. The owner himself, then managing and supervising relished an expanding universe and the opportunity afforded by the climate of the time. He told me with a smile that he is now back on the machines and enjoying it again. The forty year old midriff spread will soon be shed as all bar one jeep are handed back and the office chair wont be warmed as much in future. He was stung badly by a few builders and had to let most of the lads go, as the bank took his overdraft and put it on term loan. He wont let out as much credit in future and wont take on big staff numbers again unless the serious contracts reappear.
Morale is a vague concept. Some people need it to be given to them by some equally vague concept of leadership. Morale can be high or it can be poor. The National morale is now said to be Low. Myles Na gopaleen could have some fun now with his encyclopedia of cliches- The man whose morale was Low; The Man who said we needed Leadership.
What you dont hear now though is the real truth which is that ordinary people, not Leaders, not Obamas, just workers, make their own morale. The story you need to hear now is the story of the man who took off the suit and went back on the machines, or who left the office and got back on a digger or who went from the big auctioneering firm to the dole queue to learning to write software to designing websites.
Media can say what they like about leadership until it becomes a cliche in itself. In the upper corporate world, high performing companies are often said to have a culture of self- leadership.
The generations of Irish who escaped the dreary wet deprivations of their youth and emigrated to build better lives and contribute to other societies knew self- leadership. But they would have just called it survival.
A hero of my youth, an icon of eighties Ireland, Barry McGuigan is now bizarrely choreographing a reality boxing show. Ten middle class symbols of the Ahern era including actors, Tg 4 stars, a builder, A former GAA star, a comedian, are putting aside their comfortable success after an easy expansionist Ahern decade to be trained to leanness and to fight in a ring under McGuigans mentoring. McGuigan had an innocence. The innocence of the kid who took no credit for his own greatness was typical of the Ireland before Riverdance, of the Irish who had to take their own chances with a boat or a plane, and bears no resemblance to the urbane cosmopolitan, confident irish sportsman of today who Expects.
I think this incongruous mix of nostagia and grit is no accidental metaphor. I believe the generation now reeling a little and now holding the private sector together with their fingernails were reared lean and learnt to work hard. They took all the advantages of tax breaks and a perfect expansionist economic climate to create the Celtic Tiger, a cliche to burn now on a ceremonial bonfire of the celtic Vanities. I believe that now this generation, now barely forty perhaps have the best working years of their careers still ahead of them. This generation of men like me- and the ten gobshites on TV who McGuigan is going to train- to whom Barry McGuigan was a representative icon of Irish fighting spirit in the face of social, political and economic adversity in the late eighties. A generation who will make their own morale and provide their own leadership are once again fit and ready to start at their beginnings. Ready to rebuild.

Eye of the Tiger!


Des Groome

Stand and be counted- YOUR EURO COUNTS

The flow of money into and around- and out of- the Irish economy for the last decade can be likened to the flow of liquid life aid from an out of control hydrant on a hot day. An abundance of cash overflowing, much of it wastefully, on streets awash with foreign credit. Abruptly the tap has been turned off now for about 12 months. The private sector exists on a slow drip.
The public sector, government included, have been slow to feel the drought.Perhaps they have been able to keep their own sprinklers switched on and exist in a pampered mindset, oblivious to the lack of cash flow in the new economic reality the rest of us have to do business in.
I have launched a voucher campaign to promote local shopping in Kildare town as part of my chairmanship of the chamber of commerce. It is a two sided argument; The retailer and small business is encouraged to give REAL value to consumers_ rip off Ireland is dead and gone!-
and the consumer/household shopper is asked to remember that SMEs CAN compete with big outlets in many ways , and remember that small towns need small business at their vibrant centres, small businesses that we all have a duty to support.


Groome PETVETS answer to this movement has been to reduce prices of many key services to 2005 prices- a bitch spay now reduced to 120 euro. Consult fee now down to 38 euro.
Old Age Pensioners are the back bone of our nation.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays we give ONE THIRD off all Vet services to OAPs.

Community values, local solidarity, value for money, self-help.
These are the principles on which we can rebuild our country.
The so-called boom should have been switched off and some costs controlled for the cash drought we now have . There is a feeling of loss and of waste.
The loss of prosperity will be only temporary.
Lets see what values we can refind on the journey forward again.


Des Groome.

"Beginning to Engage"- The complacency of the mediocre.

My family have had a long dark fortnight. We knew it was coming and the outcome thank God has been a good one but an emotional numbness remains. Now that James is home from Crumlin we can sleep in our own beds, pay attention to our other children, nurse him in the comfort of our own home and gain relief from knowing that his surgery has been a succcess, a hurdle has been crossed, the spectre of fear of tragedy has passed. But it is hard to write about, and speak about, and the experience is still chest-tightening to think about, and doesnt yet feel much like relief. When JK Rowling conceived the spectre of the Dementors in her Harry Potter Saga she could have drawn on the living grief and the empty fear of parents of desperately -ill children. Parents who have no power but to hope, who are often too angry to pray. To parent a child through pain you cant control or through awful invasive heart surgery in which you must have faith is to be touched by a Dementor, to inhale the stress, to be drained flat and cold. You inhale all that into your chest and then take another deep breath to find the strength to be a parent, to make your child trust, believe and heal.
Just after James surgery when he was still in intensive care I answered an invitation from Kildare Souths conscientious TD Sean OFearghail to attend his committees grilling of Professor Drumm of the HSE. The timing was bad but I went to try to get a flavour of this man presiding over the vast and inert human pyramid we call a health service. The committee itself had called this man to make sense of why, without any political compunction, Crumlin hospital had cut back essential services, closed operating theatres, and launched a war of words with Drumm at the first hint of coercion to reduce costs. The background story we have all heard is of a 9m euro deficit which the HSE has forced Crumlin to live with in 2009. The real story however, according to Drumm, is that Crumlin over-spent by 9m in 2008 and have simply been told by the HSE not to do so in 2009 as this year "we wont have the 9million to give you". Now even to me as a parent that sounded reasonable if indeed the money wasnt all wisely spent or if good efficiencies could be found without care being compromised. OFearghail himself put it succinctly and fairly " We are asking the hospital managers to manage this hospital and find efficiencies without sacrificing front line services". OFearghail is one of the good guys. I am in agreement with him in putting it up to managers to fulfill their job descriptions and manage costs- including their own cost.
Drumm made three good points that the entire panel of cross party TDs found agreement with; He wanted Crumlin to pool their blood costs and needs with St James'; He wanted them to raise an extra 12million a year by billing their private patients more accurately; He wanted them to cut their payroll by 3% as they pay the highest rate and proportion of over-time of any hospital.
These three requests the board of Crumlin have failed to do but have cynically reacted in a war of PR with the HSE by closing a theatre and wards. On these three simple cost efficiencies Drumm is right and the board of Crumlin plainly are remiss in a city full of hospitals and full of wateful duplication of service in some areas ( for example we have 3 childrens A and E in one city ) and only 80% use of beds in some parts of Crumlin while children from Temple street hospital wait often in over-crowded adult wards.
But there are disturbing mediocrities emerging about Drumms role also; Questioned at length by OFearghail and his committee about who calls the shots-or are the HSE just observers ?.. Drumm procrastinated, prevaricated, " Crumlin havent agreed how to cut the costs" ..." I have asked Crumlin for full support for a Cross-clinic approach"..." Paediatrics needs a leader as oncology has made great strides with its new clinical leader"... On more than one occasion in the debate Drumm acknowledged difficulties in getting the hospital board to his view point but used the phrase" we are beginning to engage". How many years into Drumms job has it taken him to get the hospital boards to begin to engage...
TDs challenged Drumm about a credibility gap between what Crumlin had told O Fearghail,s committee and what Drumm was saying. He did acknowledge this credibility gap and explained the difficulties in terms that would be clear to students of organisational behaviour in any business school; Drumms hands are tied by human resource management issues, by resistance to change, by his failure to acheive involvement in his vision for the future of health care.
The answers to me are not crystal clear or neatly aligned into a strategic change management ladder towards a wonderful dynamic future for our HSE. But there are some things clear to me- Drumm is a poor communicator and lacks the courage to execute real change.
His vision - and it is also Harneys vision- is the wrong one, as why otherwise would opposition to it be so intense and widespread. His exasperation with the unions, the work practices of hospitals, his veiled criticism of boards he is only now beginning to engage with; these are the flaws of a man who is not a leader or a lateral thinker, who should be still treating patients- not trying to focus a big picture which to him plainly still remains a jigsaw in pieces.
To put one final fact to the philosophy, to put this in context. Crumlins wage bill is 74 % of its entire budget. I dont know of one business sector that could be viable with that cost ratio for labour. Childrens health care doesnt need to be compromised. Does this issue like so many others arrive back at the need for unions, for people, to be realistic about how money should be spent and what the rest of us are able to pay for.

All Gods Creatures got a place in the Choir..

Irelands media reverberate now in july 2009 with a cacophony of political dissent. Some criticisms against our political decision-makers are justified and are constructive. The rising cries to reduce salaries of high ranking civil servants, to tax the judiciary in line with the citizenry, to reform the public sector- these voices must be heard and change must sooner happen. Dissonant notes of self-interest from unions, from banking groups, from the construction sector-those voices must be faced down in the long term interest of an equitable society. Fianna Fails leadership must face these groups and face the decisions which have to be made if necessary against groups who have even donated heavily to these same politicians. Perhaps therein lies the difficulty, but if Cowens government can deconstruct the legacy of Bertie Aherns misguided, if well meaning, social partnership annual giveaways and the contradictory Reagonomic tax regime, then this government could move Fianna Fail back to its ideological base as a centrist party of the " Plain people of Ireland". I say this as a committed member of Fianna Fail and acknowledge that the plain people of Ireland are now a sophisticated and discerning society who should be addressed as such. I also however ask this same society to acknowledge that these past Fianna Fail governments main sins were of creating a wastage culture and of giving too much. A wastage culture therefore that we all must partake in amending.

Most of our media commentators flaunt an agenda of blame. While the three horsemen of the apocolypse- MacWilliams, Hobbs and Lee- persist with an easy to be wise after the event refrain of "I told you so".
Yesterdays Irish Times ran a heart warming story of political inclusiveness. Against the dissonant choir of the day this was a simple tale of enhanced engagement in the political process. A recently elected Fine Gael Councillor from Bagenalstown had a series of clashes in public with a political rival. Councillor Bambrick has reason to agree that politics may indeed be a dog eat dog business. His political jousts with one Larry Byrne were however a horse of a different colour involving a dog of decidedly Blue Shirt allegiance. Byrne was cited in court for disturbance of Cllr Bambrick by loudly ordering his dog not to approach, but " to come away from that or you will be contaminated" . In his defence Byrne stated that he had merely warned his dog to avoid the greasy poo on the grass. I am reminded of Disraelis famous entreaty to avoid the greasy pole of politics- sage advice to man or beast.
Judge Harnett of Bagenalstown district court entered into the spirit of multi-species political inclusiveness towards the cause of mammalian suffrage by declaring that he was sure this canine was " undoubtedly a Fine Gael dog". Equally magnanimously both judge and Gardai agreed "it wouldnt be necessary to call the hound as a witness".
By way of setting legal precedent Judge Harnett ruled that second hand ( or second paw) commentary through the intermediary of a canine could not legally be construed as insult to any third party.
Presumably Byrne and Bambrick were given paws for thought as they left the court with Bambrick bound - or was it boned- to the peace for a year.

OAP Tuesday - and WEDNESDAY!

My father lived life to the full, lived it at a pace few would keep up with and lived a life less ordinary. But he was a man of his time and those who grew up in fifties Ireland and worked through seventies and eighties Ireland did see it all. He would have valuable advise for young families and business people in an Ireland that has changed a lot but is now affected by economic and international forces that we have been through before.
Dad emigrated to England as a young dentist and came back with my mother and a young family to Carbury in north Kildare to farm and set up his practice. His passion for horses led him to race ride until he was 45 years old. He rode at the Cheltenham festival on a mare he broke, owned and trained at the age of 43. My sisters and I had a rural childhood of freedom, fresh air, hard work, surrounded by cattle, dogs and ponies. My father began his day on the farm, then donned a suit and put in 8 hours in his dental surgery in Edenderry, then fed cattle and horses and walked his fields until dark, usually with me, the boy, by his side.
The advices that resonate every day, of hard work, of fair play, honesty, independence, have stood me in good stead. We took risks and chances, both he and I, in business and in life - with crazy horses on the racetrack and optimistic enterprises to remind ourselves that every failed plan or tumble at the last is just another lesson learnt. The voice that goes on in my head in every day dealings, to walk away, to hold counsel, to keep the cheque book closed or to speak out and support what feels right- that voice is his.
I remember two pieces of advice about business. The first was never to trust a Bank or let them control your affairs. The second was never to owe what you cant easily pay back.
I would say its a bit late to be giving some people those pieces of advice. The next thing he'd say would be - dont let the banks bully you when you are in trouble!- paay them back a bit and dont panic them by telling them too much!
I mention these sayings of his in tongue in cheek fashion as the reality of todays business climate for the SME sector is grim- as grim as the late seventies perhaps. My chairmanship of Kildare Chamber of Commerce has put me in touch with businesses staying open only by will power.
But will power is a much under estimated asset.
If Dad was around he would be just 66. He passed away on a sunny morning up on the Curragh on horse back on the gallops. I cant picture him as an OAP. But I do know that people like him lived with 50 % income tax and 17 % interest rates and worked through that to educate the generation here now and build the nation we have, such as it is, warts and all.

Groome Pet Vets now give OAPs one third off all Vet services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If you are an OAP- you know thats the least you deserve!

Des Groome.