The really important stories take a back seat in this silliest of seasons

So we won't have a President David after all (unless another David comes out of the woodwork with a surprise nomination). We could yet have a President Gay (although not that one), and it is possible that we could yet have a President Micheál (O Muircheartaigh that is). The traditional "silly season" for newspapers, radio and television - stretching from about the second week in July to the end of August - has been imbued with more silliness than usual, at least in an Irish context. We have had one presidential hopeful, David Norris, bite the dust in a welter of allegations over his letter to an Israeli court pleading for leniency for a man convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy. Although he is not now running for the presidency, his own reputation as a hardworking member of the Seanad has been damaged. Then we have had another half-hopeful presidential aspirant, Gay Byrne, also biting the dust, saying on the way out that he hadn't the 'stomach' for a tilt at the campaign. The latest celebrity candidate, Micheál " Muircheartaigh, declared as of this week that he is considering requests from friends and acquaintances to take a run at the presidency and will make up his mind next week. He has been described on the RTE website as "one of the most popular and and admired figures in Irish life". At 81, he is of advanced age but says he is an active octogenarian. In Chinese politburo terms, he is a mere boy. However, because this is the silly season, he may be about to have his life put through the media mincer and he can only hope that website description will be intact by the time he makes up his mind on seeking a nomination. All that is not to say that the debate about the presidency and the October election should be trivialised. The Republic decided to establish a figurehead role in the 1937 Constitution and we are about to elect our ninth president. We have had two presidents who served two terms, Patrick Hillery and Mary McAleese, and it is important that, after 14 years of the latter's occupancy of the office (which was seen as successful), the electorate should engage fully with the process. Now for the hard question. Which of these two should we consider the more important - the presidency or the health of Maedhbh McGivern (14)? The health of one of our young citizens, looking forward with hope for a long life, should be as important if not more important than any debate about the presidency. After all, no-one will die if we don't manage to elect a president. Maedhbh McGivern's life hangs by a thread. When it came to making arrangements to get her to London for a long-awaited liver transplant, this State failed her. What is worse - and as is usual in Irish life - no-one stood up to take the responsibility for that failure. We now learn, courtesy of a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the system put in place by the State for transferring patients abroad in urgent circumstances for lifesaving treatments not available in Ireland "was not designed to be reliable". Its key findings included that there was no single agency or person in charge of ensuring that she was transported in time; there was no evidence Our Lady's Hosptial in Crumlin, the HSE or the National Ambulance Service understood or managed the risks involved; there was confusion between the ambulance service and hospital in relation to who was responsible for the transfer and transport logistics; there was no contingency plans in the event of no State aircraft or private air ambulance being available. The McGivern family, from Co Leitrim, had received a call from the London hospital at 7.20pm on 2nd July last to say a matching liver had been dound. A number of calls then took place between several agencies to arrange Maedhbh's transfer. They were told that no helicopters were available to travel to Strandhill Airport where they arrived at about 11.30pm to travel on a Coast Guard helicopter. However, before taking off, the family were informed that fuel stops would make it impossible to reach the London hospital before a 2am deadline and the operation was cancelled. Her father, Joe, said his family's initial raction to the report was one of shock at the finding that the system for transporting patients for emergency operations was not reliable. He has now commissioned a back-up plan which involves the use of a private air ambulance firm at Weston Airport, Dublin, if the various State agencies are unable to provide an aircraft for a transfer. In any further attempt at organising a transfer, the State should pay attention to that part of our Constitution which aspires to cherish the children of the nation equally.