This country is in a right state.

The RTE News page has five headlines, three of which are failures in our hospital system.

There’s the usual High Court case where the system failed several times to correctly diagnose a woman who ultimately died. These cases are almost a weekly occurrence and the Health Service has to fork out many millions every year in compensations. The next is the announcement of record numbers on trolleys awaiting beds in the hospital system. These records are broken on a regular basis so it’s hardly news. The third is the Children’s Hospital where a frightening number of kids had botched spinal surgery and all have to be operated on yet again.

Then there’s the immigration problem.

The country is full and it has reached the stage where male immigrants are just being told to join the homeless on the streets. Some extremists regularly burn down buildings which have been earmarked for immigrant hostels. Protests are a normal part of life these days. And our Great Gubmint still welcomes immigrants usually quoting some EU law or something and also waffling about the Irish being welcomed abroad during the Famine [omitting the fact that most either went to work digging canals in the UK or going to the States where they usually ended up doing skivvying work].

How about education?

The schools are full to bursting as they suddenly have had to take on a load of extra kids [you’ve guessed it – immigrants] and parents are finding it hard to find places for their kids at Secondary level. The schools can’t get extra staff as potential employees can’t afford the local accommodation.

Anyone need a doctor?

The local medical system is equally at capacity in most areas. Surgeries are full and just can’t register any newcomers. This is in part due to immigration but it’s not helped by the gubmint who keep raising the age limit for free doctor’s visits. Surgeries are having to cope with kids who have nothing more than a runny nose.

How about a place to call your own?

Of course there’s a housing crisis. The gubmint relied on the private sector to build new houses but due to building costs [and greed] the cost of new houses is way beyond that average Joe Rasher’s salary. Rental prices too are in the silly region. This is partly due to the regulations and taxes imposed on landlords but also down to vulture funds buying whole housing estates as they are built and then charging eye-watering rents. We have record numbers of homeless, being added to every day. We love records.

What’s the gubmint doing?

Well, just now they’re packing their bags in anticipation of nice junkets abroad for a week or so using Patrick’s Day as a grand excuse. Apart from that they’re just chipping away at the rust on the Titanic and sweeping the bridge-deck. The Captain and the First Mate just swap jobs every so often, making announcements over the tannoy that everything is fine and that they know what they are doing.

There are no lifeboats.

I hope there are no icebergs.