Harney has timeout at Super Bowl during US work trip
HEALTH Minister Mary Harney went to the Super Bowl during a "fact-finding" trip to the US, where she travelled on a government jet.
The minister attended the American football showcase final in Arizona last Sunday.
As a result Ms Harney was absent from a Dail debate last night on the health services.
The minister's attendance at the game, between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, when she was on an official visit to the US, was slammed by Fine Gael last night.
The party's health spokesman Dr James Reilly said Ms Harney is "not the Minister for Sport".
And in the Dail last night, his party colleague, Alan Shatter, asked her junior minister, Dr Jimmy Devins to confirm Ms Harney's attendance at the event.
The minister's visit to the US was not publicised by the Department of Health and the itinerary was not circulated.
Ms Harney's trip only became public when it was noted she was not at yesterday's meeting.
Facilities
She is visiting a range of facilities in the US, including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where the late Brian Lenihan Snr underwent a liver transplant in 1989, the Anderson Cancer Centre in Hueston, Texas, the Arizona State University and Washington DC, where she is meeting the US deputy secretary of health.
When asked by the Irish Independent if Ms Harney attended the Super Bowl when she was at Arizona State University, her spokesman replied: "She did."
"The trip was organised months ago by the Department of Health, with a focus on cancer and dentistry," the spokesman said.
"The opportunity to go to the Super Bowl came up much later and is not an official part of the trip," the spokesman added.
Fine Gael said Ms Harney had decided to be away while the Oireachtas debates a vital issue. But the minister's spokesman said Fine Gael only notified her of the health services debate last Friday, when she was leaving for the US.
Engaged
Dr Reilly said the minister's attendance at the sporting event only emphasised his view that she is not engaged with her job.
"She is not the Minister for Sport and Tourism. She is the Minister for Health and she is presiding over a health service where people are losing their lives," he said.
The minister's spokesman dismissed the criticism of her attendance at the game.
"If the schedule allowed for a private trip to a sporting event, I don't think that should be a source of criticism," the spokesman said.
The PD leader is on a weeklong trip to the US with a large group of officials from the Department of Health and her husband Brian Geoghegan.
The group includes her special adviser Patricia Ryan, her press secretary Derek Cunningham, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan, dental section official Chris Fitzgerald and her private secretary
The entourage travelled to the USA from Baldonnel last Friday but it is not known how many, or who exactly, went to the Super Bowl game.
Mr Cunningham could not be contacted last night.
The spokesman said there was a real benefit from trips abroad by the minister.
- Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor
