‘Botched op medics cleared by inquiry’ is the lead headline in the Irish Independent this morning, which relates to the quite shocking story of two surgeons who removed the wrong kidney from an eight-year old boy in an operation at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin in March 2008. The boy was left with one poorly functioning kidney and may need a transplant.
Sri Paran, the junior doctor who removed the healthy kidney from the boy during the operation, broke down in tears yesterday during the medical inquiry which ruled that he and senior doctor, Martin Corbally, had no case to answer for.
The parents of the boy involved, Jennifer Stewart and Oliver Conroy said afterwards that lessons had to be learned from the incident because doctors have ‘the lives of children in their hands.’ “They must realise this when making decisions,†they added.
The Irish Times lead with the headline ‘Tánaiste plays down row over halt to EU funds for Fás’. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan yesterday confirmed that a claim for €57 million spent by Fás on training, which was to be repaid by Europe, was withdrawn because of issues raised by European audits.
Coughlan eased fears over the controversy, however, by claiming that other eligible Fás expenditure was used to replace the withdrawn claim, so that there was no overall loss to the exchequer.
The emergence of the latest controversy to hit the state training agency had led to Labour Party spokesman Ruairà Quinn to call for Fás to be shut down after the latest blow to its credibility.
‘8,000 jobs lost as state budgets unspent’ is the lead headline in this morning’s Irish Examiner, who claim in a report that the Government’s failure to spend more than €800 million of its capital budget this year cost 8,000 jobs in the construction industry.
According to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), with 10 jobs created for every €1 million spent on capital projects, the latest exchequer figures represented a missed opportunity for the government to stimulate economic activity by providing vital infrastructure.
“This volume of capital investment has the potential to sustain 8,000 construction jobs for a year. The bulk of this year’s direct exchequer investment will be spent on projects already under way and, in most cases, completed,†said CIF policy and research director Martin Whelan.
“But our analysis indicates that sufficient replacement contracts are not being prepared or rewarded, and the figures showing capital spending are almost 24% behind profile reinforce this,†he added.
