A ROW HAS erupted between independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and a Labour senator over remarks Flanagan allegedly made in relation to suicide.

Labour Senator John Kelly told the Seanad yesterday that Flanagan “got into a rant in relation to the running of the health service” during a meeting at the Department of Health Dublin HQ. The meeting was held to discuss Roscommon Hospital, which is to have its A&E services curtailed.

Kelly claimed that Flanagan only arrived into the room towards the end of the meeting. Kelly said:

He got into a rant in relation to the running of the health service and he suggested at the end of the rant to a senior official in the Department of Health that he should … he called for the senior official to go and get a rope and commit suicide.

I want to call on Deputy Flanagan to withdraw that remark.

However, Flanagan said last night that his remarks had been “taken out of context” by the senator. Writing on his official Facebook page, Flanagan said:

While not ideal, my comments have been both misquoted and taken out of context. I did not as reported tell a Department of Health official ‘to go and get a rope and commit suicide’.

What I said was that if I was responsible for as much pain and suffering as the HSE official in question then that is what I would do. In other words I would not be able to live with myself. I said this after listening to the same official try to explain to the meeting how great our health service is. The same health service which leaves people in pain and in suffering due to greed and incompetence.

Flanagan also accused the Labour and Fine Gael parties of “currently pursuing policies which if continued will lead to a massive increase in suicide in this country”.

This is Senator John Kelly making his claims in the Seanad yesterday: