There are numerous contenders for the inaugural slot on Wired Up Wrong, but no doubt we will get around to them all in good time. However, the winner by more than just a neck or a hard neck for that matter  for this dubious honour simply has to be Mary Harney and the HSE. When Brian Cowen speaks of a Government fit for purpose well Mary Harney just springs to mind doesn’t she. As Minister for Enterprise she managed to oversee the culture of cronyism and squandering of taxpayers money that was to later come back and haunt FAS but not before Harney had left the scene of the crime and wreak further havoc in the health service. That is too big a can of worms for Wired Up Wrong today, so we are going to focus on giving the award to Mary Harney’s most inappropriately named Social Inclusion Unit.

This is the unit of the HSE which as the name might suggest looks after the well being, welfare and yes, you guessed it, social inclusion of such people as those with AIDS, travellers, ex-prisoners, asylum seekers, heroin addicts and Noel Mc Cullagh.

Mc Cullagh (33) from Ballinasloe is an MS patient. Diagnosed in 2006 in the Netherlands where he completed his studies and later commenced working as a broadcast journalist, translator and historian. Under the care of his neurologist he manages his critical condition with Bediol and Bedrocan, a cannabis based medication. Under UN resolution and protocols set out in the Schengen Agreement to which 24 European countries are party, McCullagh can travel safely with his medication providing the necessary prescriptions and paperwork are in order - travel safely to everywhere except Ireland that is because the Social Inclusion Unit at the HSE have informed him that cannabis is illegal in Ireland and that he will be arrested if he arrives here with his medication.

For three years now Noel McCullagh has been prevented from returning home to visit his family and friends due to the red tape and bureaucrats at the HSE. Without his medication, Noel McCullagh’s condition is dehabilitating and life threatening and no Irish politician will champion his cause as they are afraid of the word CANNABIS. Where is the poll topping MEP and man who would be President Brian Crowley on this issue when you need him instead of constantly beaming and spouting platitudes?

Noel McCullagh emphasises that he is not a cannabis activist or campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis but rather for the right to travel freely and safely to his own country with his legally prescribed medication, just as he can do throughout the rest of Europe.

He should be allowed home for a visit without putting his health or life at risk and for preventing him from doing so we say that the Social Inclusion Unit at the HSE, the Department of Health and Mary Harney are Wired Up Wrong. If you agree perhaps you could let them know your views. The HSE’s Assistant National Director for Social Inclusion is Alice O’ Flynn, (email: alice.oflaynn@hse.ie or tel: 01  620 1703. Although Mc Cullagh says the person who has been stonewalling him at the Social Inclusion Unit is one Mary O’ Reilly.  However, don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a prompt response as MS Ireland previously contacted Ms O’ Reilly on Noel McCullagh’s behalf  on September 12^th, 2008 and didn’t get a reply until January 9^th, 2009, more or less pointing out that McCullagh would get into the country with his medication over their dead body…but more likely over his dead body!!