I find it really annoying that Reilly keeps saying that one reason he put Swords on the list was that he wanted more than 20 sites. If you have a list of 130 sites ranked in order of merit and you have the top 20 but you want 15 more, then you just take the next 15 on the list. It’s not complicated. But he picked number 128 on the list and when asked why he keeps saying its because he wanted more than 20. Not only is it stroke politics worthy of Fianna Fail but he keeps insulting our intelligence with these non-explanations.

Jesus Christ reilly. Leave…just leave.

It was suggested on VB last night that most Labour representatives maintain Roisin Shorthall should have just went ahead and put a primary care centre in Reilly’s area just to placate him and none of this would have happened.
Reprehensible idea from labour and smacks of the bulls**t back slapping cronyism FF thrived on for years.

Why is it that when Minister O’Reilly does something wrong, he doesn’t speak to the Dail until late at night????? He done the same a few weeks ago when his name was discovered to have something to do with the old folks home. He didn’t address the Dail until 9pm, what’s he afraid of???? Why can’t he address the Dail during the day, after all this is something important to the people. Are they all afraid of him or what????

Hi Gavan,

Any chance thejournal.ie could set up a “who will you vote for next” poll? I’m genuinely interested in which party readers think can make a difference.

I think it would create an interesting discussion¿

Hold on there now! … instead Tallaght would get a new centre “in the shadow” of the local hospital

What is wrong with that? A hospital is not a primary care centre. Primary care centres are to keep unnecessary cases from clogging up hospitals. Plus hospitals have a far larger catchment area than a general practice. What is his point? Or am I misinterpreting him?

As a post event rationalisation this statement is pathetic. Having got himself into a hole he should stop digging.

It is time for him to go before he further embarrasses the government. His byzatine finances and business affairs, peremptory closure of the HSE and is obvious bias in favour of GP partnerships added to his inability to work with his team means he is a disaster waiting to happen.

Spoken like a man who is used to having his position respected.
“blah blah, take an asprin, go away”.
It’s worked so far!

All traces of reality surgically removed.
I wonder just how long kennys confidence will last in him and what s***storm is around the corner

RE-ELECTION

Pants on Fire

has alex white been informed of this statement? is this an official department statement on policy or is it simply a personal statement from reilly himself? because if it is the latte,r it is a continuation of exactly the same kind of FG policy of non communication that led to this trouble in the first place

This whole thing is a Farse, it goes directly to the root of what’s wrong with politics in this country and why we need to reform the system. Most govt Labour TDs are pissed off with Róisín Shorthall because she didn’t go with the flow, that the should have done more “politicing” by ensure she smoothed up the minister by including at least one primary health care centre in his constituency. Instead she played it straight. Reilly then resultingly massaged the criteria until he could fit in some of the primary care centres in his constituency, compromising the authority of Róisín Shorthall and making a whole joke of the primary care centre location process.

So North County Dublin benefits at the behest of the rest of the country, allocating funds in an inefficient manner and making a couple of landlords in Swords and Balbriggan very happy. We can talk about how we need to make the cabinet more accountable to the Dáil and change the party whip system but if that’s the attitude of back bench TDs then what’s the point? I’ve come to the conclusion that we need a list system for our Dáil. I find this whole farse immoral and disgusting.

Stop what you are doing for just one minute and try to conjure up in your mind what the love child of James Reilly and Mary Harney would look like.

He had to come up with something in an attempt to save face. Trouble is that no one believes a word he says. It was a corrupt act and an abuse of his position. Get Reilly and all the cronies trying to justify his deceit out of Govt.

If you say that to me again… I’ll put your head through the wall

Cheers Andrew. That’s not a bad geographical spread

Reilly caught out. Swords an Balbriggan were not high on original list

Sadly it is politics as se know it.
Will it change – only if TDs do it for no reward.

Where are all the highly paid, highly pensioned and expenses drunk TD’s? The chamber is empty!

Apart from this issue something struck me looking at the video. The Fianna Fail deputy in opposition questioned him on his motives for adding the other two Primary care centres. But a huge problem in countering and questioning is they ask so much is a vague way that it actually gets the minister off the hook because in being vague he can waffle on and waste time. Why don’t the opposition just ask a one line question. That way a minister cannot escape by waffle and his avoidance then can be seen by everyone.

The IRA justified 30 years of terrorism.
A drug dealer can justify selling drugs as there is a market for drugs.
So should we all justify their actions also?

Putting treble the weight on urban deprivation would put a lot of primary care centres in Labour constituencies.

Alex White however won’t have any complaint about a primary care centre in Rathfarnham, just up the road from his constituency office :)

Oh get over it. I know everyone here has an opinion on this but the general public don’t give a SH1T about this. anyway the hse will be heavily involved in the setup of these so they probably won’t open for about another ten years.

People talk about having another Election but what will that serve? Who would we vote in? FF & SF? FG & SF?
FF & Lab? A hugh number of Independents and so have a hung Dáil with three or more parties & groups trying to hold a Rainbow Coalition together for six or eight months and then another election? Become like Italy hand have a routine of elections every year whe the government falls each time?
Unfortunately There are no real alternatives.

The question should not be how James Reilly came to add Balbriggan and Swords into the list of new primary care centres. It should be how is it that Balbriggan in particular was not on the list devised by the HSE and Roisin Shortall.
Apparently the criteria under Shorthall gave greater weighting to deprivation and that is how Balbriggan was not on the list. Hmm So Balbriggan which has seen its population increase from 6,000 to 20,000 from 1996 and its unemployment numbers increase from 1,400 in 2007 to 6,000 in 2012. Maybe the government should be looking at criteria for deprivation and not depirvation itself.