It’s a numbers game!

In life, everything we do seems to be related to numbers. Whether that’s our age, paying the household bills, our disposable income or protesting within a consequential cohort. Less is not more, when dealing with figures. Unless of course you are talking about the BBC 1 “Pointless” programme. Here zero, nil, nada is the right answer to the questions being asked. Though some people I know, don’t actually understand the lowest score wins!

On Sunday the 10^th, I “pedalled” for the fourth time, the murderous Wicklow 200! Why I’d want to put myself through that torture and torment, by returning to this most scenic of regions, to test my mettle once again, shows that I am certifiably mad! To cycle 200 kilometres and climb over 2,800 metres of brutal hills, has become a numbers game to me. I am now trying to complete this testing task in less than 7 hours. Alas, despite the help from my fellow Biscuit Club members and a handy few Orwell Wheelers, 7:05:58 was the finishing time on my GSP gizmo. So I’ll just have to return in 2019 and try once again. That 7 hour barrier, has become my very own Robert The Bruce’s wee spider’s legacy. She tried and tried, time after time to finish her wee web, in that darkened cave. The good news was, she eventually completed all of her web and Robert The Bruce went on to hammer the English, at the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314. Happy days!

Professor Nolan’s National Review of Cardiac Service, is now underway. According to Minister H, Nolan’s report will define the provision of this medical speciality, for decades to come. The Review will deliver, once and for all, a service suitable for a modern Ireland. We are to believe that the findings will be equitable and impartial, delivering for ALL the people on this green isle. We hope that the citizens of Waterford, the wider SE, will see parity of service provision, when Prof Nolan’s notes and conclusions are finally published in full. We can’t contemplate another stab in the back, with a knife or a blow to the head, with a lead pipe. Luckily, there’s been no mention of Colonel Mustard or Professor Plum!

We know from The Herity Report, that the numbers stacked up against us. In fact it now transpires, that there was some excellent tutoring by Senior Civil Servants, instructing just how the abacus should come to its final calculations. 500,000 people living in the SE region? “Poppy-cock”, would be the findings of Herity’s Report. Every Government Department, the CSO, Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland worked to that half a million figure. But “No!”, Herity worked to some fictitious, fabricated figure, that could only be defined, by the Report’s terms of reference.

Let’s hope that Prof Nolan does the right thing and gets the numbers correct, first time around.

Just imagine if we could mobilise ALL the people, from across the whole SE region, to “Tell Nolan”? By this I mean, let him know that we are here in substantial numbers. The opportunity is out there. We can ALL go on-line to make our own submissions to the 24/7 cardio cause. The deadline, to make our voices heard, is 1pm on Friday the 17^th of August. If we sit back and do diddly-squat, then nobody can complain if this latest Report finds against our will. Let your fingers do the talking, get on-line!

Will it work I hear you cry?

History tells us that numbers count. Remember when the rescue helicopter services were proposed to be withdrawn from Waterford Airport? Tens of thousands wrote, emailed and protested from across the SE region. Lo and behold, such political pressure ensured we retained our R117 helicopter.

19,000 people sent a badly worded, generic, photocopied letter, to Minister C and his Boundary Commission. The net result was that Simon Coveney dropped the recommendations to expand Waterford City, to the North. Additional political party pressure lead by JP Phelan and Co, threatened by the potential loss of a mass FG vote, ensured another Kilkenny victory.

Our politicians live and die through numbers. Make your voice count, get involved!