In the Dail last Tuesday, Bertie Ahern said that the case of Susie Long, who died from cancer at Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross the previous Friday night, was handled "very regrettably". The 41year-old wife and mother galvanised a nationwide mood of disquiet when she recounted on Liveline last January how, as a public patient, she had been forced to wait for seven months, probably fatally, to have her illness diagnosed.

Last Wednesday, a scheduled visit to Leinster House by the Health Services Action Group, including Susie Long's husband, Conor MacLiam went ahead. Out of 225 TDs and senators, 10 turned up to listen to the delegates' submissions. There was not a single government TD among them.

"It's what I expected, I suppose, " said Conor MacLiam, a teacher who is committed to furthering the cause which made his late wife tragically famous. "They're in the business of politics. If it was Fine Gael who were in power, they probably wouldn't have turned up and all the Fianna Fail TDs would have been there. Politicians have a remarkable knack for making you feel they're on your side.

"Susie was a firm believer in people power, and I am too.

I keep thinking about the question she put to Bono when he did a questions-and-answers session with the New York Times. She quoted Martin Luther King and wondered if Bono ever got tired of asking nicely all the time and thought it was time to start demanding."

Three apologies were received by the Health Services Action Group, including one from the minister for social and family affairs, Martin Cullen. It has emerged that, while the health delegation was in Leinster House, Fianna Fail Oireachtas members were attending a special parliamentary party meeting about the Aer Lingus pull-out from Shannon Airport.

Marie O'Connor, author of Emergency: Irish Hospitals in Chaos and secretary of the Health Services Action Group, confirmed that invitations had been emailed to every member of the Oireachtas except for the PDs, the Taoiseach and minister for finance, as the delegation feared that "they would insist on a right to reply and we wanted them to hear us".

Among those who spoke at the meeting were Galway hospital consultant Dr John Barton, Monaghan GP Dr Ilona Duffy, Janette Byrne of Patients Together, Marie O'Connor and former British Labour Party MP Max Madden, now resident in Clare.

At one point in the meeting, the possibility was raised that St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny, where Susie Long was treated, could be shut down under the Hanly Report recommendations. Susie gave a memorable speech at the launch last May of a building project for a new 24-bed centre at the hospital, prompted by the public stand she took. The centre is likely to be named in her memory.

"St Luke's scored very well in the audit of A&Es and the hygiene audit and, in all, 30m is being spent on different aspects of the hospital, " said Conor MacLiam, "but, from the stories I heard in Leinster House, it is quite possible for money to be spent on hospitals only to have those hospitals shut down. There is no end to these people's creativity."