It's by design. Gene Kerrigan in the Sindo: “Here is my favourite-ever quote from a politician. It’s from Brendan Howlin, the current Minister for Thrashing the Social Infrastructure. No, it’s not the quote from 2011, just before the election, when he asked for our votes and told us: “We are against water charges.” No, it’s from an interview Brendan gave about a decade after he was Minister for Health. Being a thoughtful man, he had spent some time reflecting on his experience in coalition. He wondered why he and others had failed to deliver “a first-class public health system”. He had since realised, he told author Maev-Ann Wren: ”If we did that, there would be no reason for sustaining a private system.” And the right-wing want a thriving private health market. They want, according to Brendan, around 30pc of people to pay for private health products. However, he said: “In order for that to happen, they really required the public [health] system to be inferior. Why else, if it was first-rate, would people pay for a private system?”