It strikes one as serendipity - for the opposition at least - that the Dail debates a motion on the three reports from last week into Port Laoise, the one that gave rise to the Naughton letter and entered ’systems-failure’ in the political lexicon by failing patients in a grotesque multiplicity of manners while the HSE meets with relevant unions to discuss €300 million worth of cuts and possible A&E closures.

On another note, it will be interesting to see how HSE martyr Ned O Keeffe votes tonight after his readmission to the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party - if he can avoid an enforced absence.