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IT Sunday: ‘Perfect storms’ in Ireland’s health system a yearly occurrence

Hospital overcrowding and record trolley numbers dominate headlines again

'Any future museum devoted to our recent history will surely have to include a display of a hospital trolley.' Photograph: iStock

Sun Jan 8 2023 - 08:08

Welcome to this week’s IT Sunday, a selection of the best Irish Times journalism for our subscribers.

Hospital overcrowding and record trolley numbers are dominating the news, and as Diarmaid Ferriter points out, this is a theme of winter headlines – and has been for many years. Ferriter this week examines the recurring yearly warnings of “perfect storms” when it comes to Ireland’s health system: “Any future museum devoted to our recent history will surely have to include a display of a hospital trolley. Such is the endurance and frequency of the overcrowding problems that we now have an abundant archive of trolley stories and related tales of distress in our hospital settings,” he writes. Read the piece here.

Writing from the United States, David McWilliams is considering how what happens there this year will be more important than ever for the world, with implications for Ireland specifically. Taking commercial property as an example, McWilliams points to glittering office blocks that were planned when the expansion of Big Tech seemed boundless. As firms shed workers, his first column of 2023 asks: who is going to rent those expensive offices now? Read it here.

Meanwhile, Mark Paul this week casts his eye over the economic situation in Ireland, comparing that with the poor state of affairs in Britain. While the Republic maintains a relatively solid financial position, Paul writes, the UK is in the midst of an economic tempest. What’s to be done? “The correct reaction is one of deep concern. They say they don’t need help. Surely, then, they know what to do to dampen the blaze. If they don’t, could it spread?” Read the piece here.

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In the opinion section this weekend, Frank McDonald is discussing MetroLink – the transport project that promoters claim will deliver “high-capacity, high-frequency, modern and efficient metro railway” in the capital. However, argues McDonald, the reality is the scheme is another example of the lack of joined-up thinking on Dublin’s transport. Read the article here.

All eyes remain on electricity and gas bills. Yet, the pricing of gas – and electricity, 50 per cent of which is produced from gas – for retail customers is quite opaque. While petrol and diesel prices at the pump tend to rise and fall in tandem with the wholesale market, retail gas and electricity prices tend to rise and fall with a lag. In his Smart Money column this week, Cliff Taylor examines the impact of wholesale gas prices and customer bills.

Food critic Corinna Hardgrave, for her first review of the year, visited Gursha on Dublin’s Poolbeg Street. The restaurant – the creation of Mel Roddy, an Ethiopian who grew up in Ireland – is “a comfortable, congenial space, with the sort of murmur of chatter that emanates from happy groups”. The food, writes Hardgrave, is a place that will suit everyone’s new year’s resolutions (or, indeed, lack of them). Read the four-star review here.

The question of friendships and navigating changes within them has been to the fore in the past few years as the pandemic complicated relationships between all kinds of close acquaintances. In this week’s Tell Me About It advice column, one reader writes that they are losing an important friendship and don’t know how to deal with it. “I never had a bestie growing up, but in my 20s and the early stage of my first marriage I made an amazing friend in my workplace. We were like soul mates,” the reader says. However, despite years of the two being inseparable, the reader has now noticed that the friend is becoming less, rather than more, available as their kids grow up, and any attempt at addressing this issue has caused further problems. Read what Trish has to say here.

As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, tips for the best restaurants in our food section and all the latest in sport. There are plenty more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.

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