Harney lives it up in Far East luxury as Ireland ails

Health minister rounds off three-week holiday with stay at €434-a-night Bangkok hotel, writes Mark Hilliard

The Peninsula, Bangkok: Harney and her husband spent three nights at the five-star hotel

THIS is the luxury Bangkok hotel where Mary Harney was holed up on a private holiday as the nation's health system fell apart.

The besieged minister checked in on New Year's Day and left after three nights at the five-star Peninsula hotel, where rooms can cost as much as €434 a night.

Harney arrived home today from her luxury three-week holiday in Thailand where she was accompanied by her husband Brian Geoghegan. The couple flew out of Dublin airport in mid December and spent several days in Hong Kong before, it is believed, meeting up with another couple, travelling around Thailand and arriving in Bangkok and the Peninsula hotel on 1 January.

Its opulent accommodation is a far cry from the hallway trolleys endured by hundreds of patients in Irish hospitals last week – and its prices firmly out of reach of those blindsided by massive VHI hikes.

And as the country experienced a surge in cases of swine flu, Harney enjoyed the trappings of one of Bangkok's finest establishments. Hotel staff confirmed that she checked in under the name Geoghegan.

Famed for its river views from every room, the Peninsula will set you back anywhere from €255 to €434 per night, while an upgrade to its lavish suites will cost between €511 and €3,066 a night. The hotel boasts of its "sensational bathrooms and some of the city's most spacious accommodation".

"Whatever your expectation, we can match it with rooms ranging from deluxe to those with an open balcony, graduating to opulent suites with terraces and outdoor Jacuzzis for the full cityscape panorama.

"We guarantee unrivalled peace and tranquility in exceptional comfort."

Rooms at the Peninsula are designed to the highest possible standard of luxury, offering guests remote-control mood lighting and blinds "to make the most of the kaleidoscope of lights as day turns to night across the Bangkok cityscape".

Further up the extravagant high-rise hotel, the €408-a-night balcony rooms invite guests to take in the panoramic views "and feel the breeze in their hair" or to "create your own personal paradise with a custom-designed dinner a deux overlooking the Chao Phraya river".

It is unclear exactly what type of accommodation the minister enjoyed for her three-night stay but it will contrast with those at home suffering the side effects of a health system in freefall. Yesterday, as she made her way back to Ireland, protestors gathered in anger at record numbers of patients being forced to endure hospital trolleys in overcrowded wards.

In a statement issued by Harney last Thursday, she told VHI subscribers that there were no barriers to switching their policies to other companies.

January 9, 2011

Comments

#1 Ben commented, on January 9, 2011 at 7:07 p.m.:

Politician goes on private holiday. Slow news week lads?

#2 owen commented, on January 9, 2011 at 7:15 p.m.:

She,along with the rest of the failed cabinet deserve the same lump sum that chaucescu got in romania,and he never claimed a pension!

#3 Evin Dalyt commented, on January 9, 2011 at 8:18 p.m.:

If she paid for this herself it's really none of our business is it?

#4 Mick commented, on January 9, 2011 at 9:10 p.m.:

If she can afford prices like that she is obviously being paid way way too much, how many of you out there went to the Far East for your Christmas holiers in 2010???

#5 wickedfairy commented, on January 9, 2011 at 9:27 p.m.:

500 people on trolleys in hospitals this week alone and she is off sunning herself, you do but jest!

#6 joe commented, on January 9, 2011 at 9:31 p.m.:

get real Evin Dalyt, of course its our business, have you ever had a very ill relative lying on a trolley for hours and even days? SHE IS OUR HEALTH MINISTER. She has destroyed the health service.

#7 Caitirona commented, on January 9, 2011 at 9:56 p.m.:

posts 1 & 3, yes it is our business as she is paid out of the public purse. Which has been tightened for very ordinary people but our politicians don't seem to be affected. And she has presided over a disastrous health care system.

#8 Shane commented, on January 9, 2011 at 10:11 p.m.:

"....graduating to opulent suites with terraces and outdoor Jacuzzis for the full cityscape panorama."

Oh... the image I'm conjuring up of Ms Harney languishing in the Jacuzzi with the whole city watchin her!

#9 FARRELL commented, on January 9, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.:

I spent 36 hrs sitting on a chair in Beaumount Hospital in 2006 waiting to be seen after a minor stroke. I ended up signing myself out hopping on an airplane and coming home to Australia for treatment. The doctors here knew all about your TURD world health system. Trollies? you've come on a bundle in four years

#10 Hope commented, on January 9, 2011 at 11:42 p.m.:

Well it doesn't matter where she is, she has had years to get an effective healthcare system off the ground & failed, the service has just muddled along, without much input from her. The CEO, HSE, put up such a poor performance on prime time, year on year, we are faced with Winter crisis, & this lot who are paid thousands, are unable to plan a simple way out of the crisis. Fools. Unfortunately we pay the fools, & Harney ensures their pockets are well lined. They collect obscene salaries but are unable to open a ward to take the overflow, some suggestion was made to put a trolley patient in a ward to free up the space. those suggesting certainly haven't been on a trolley for too long. Gambia here we come...no reference to lowering the standards of care. This lot at the HSE have their paws on 15billion of our money, but are unable to open a ward for 3 months to avert a crisis, & ensure our elderly have a bed. This lot should betaken to the European Court of Human Rights, for abuse of the elderly.Where are the doctors/consultants in all this, delivery of poor quality care, & what about this Hippocratic oath, should this not come into play, or has it been abolished here.

#11 VOTS commented, on January 10, 2011 at 12:18 a.m.:

@ Evin Dalyt hello what planet are you on, the Fianna Failer planet maybe. Politicians are paid with taxpayers money and go on expenses paid holidays! Whats with the name change check in? Is she starting to have an identity crisis, she should for all the embarrassment she has caused herself. She should be remembered for all time as the HSE Grim Reaper and pack her bags permanently.

#12 gerry oreilly commented, on January 10, 2011 at 5:50 a.m.:

bangkok is too hot to enjoy for the new year. re waiting lists on trolleys the solution is to close the hospitals and then you have no waiting lists.

#13 mc commented, on January 10, 2011 at 1:55 p.m.:

I actually feel sorry minister Mary Harney. To be so personally self obsessed is an illness in itself that I would not wish on any human being. The people on the trollies will get treatment. She may not ever realise her illness. I wish her well.

#14 John B commented, on January 10, 2011 at 2:21 p.m.:

500 people on trolleys - no ministerial leadership, no executive leadership at any level - They are all overpaid and incompetent and lazy - If this were a private org there would be an immediate and complete management. Incidentally the frontline staff know where the inefficiencies and slackers are - it is time they did their duty and outed these slackers instead of asking the public for more money.

#15 jack meskill commented, on January 10, 2011 at 5:15 p.m.:

Still no politicians, bankers or builders in jail. Still no real analysis of what happened from our castrated or complicit media. For instance, how bloody long it took to learn that Cowen was spending the day golfing, wining and dining with Seannie Fitz and another Anglo Irish criminal, days before the un-believable Irish government decision that shocked world financial circles, to guarantee all Irish accounts and loans, despite the fact that over 80% of loan books were for speculation on the money markets.
Where is the story here, as she paid for the holiday privately? Obviously it is a red herring. The papers have a lot to answer for in this country.

#16 Tommy commented, on January 11, 2011 at 9:49 a.m.:

How many journalists have taken winter hols in sunny climes?

#17 joe commented, on January 13, 2011 at 12:03 a.m.:

I call on the German government to put an end to this nonsense immediately, otherwise I won't vote for them in the next election.

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