So much for ‘Labour’s Way’! Indeed so much for the Programme for Government as well. For the Health Service it’s ‘Reilly’s Way or the Highway’. Ms Shortall has chosen the Highway and Labour has chosen the ‘Reilly Way’

These are the ‘New Politics’ Enda told us about!!! Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

It’s kinda hard to take this in. She votes confidence in Reilly, resigns a short time later because (presumably) of Reilly’s stroke politics. Now she tells us her resignation was more to do with the lack of Labour support. This means Labour in government are for even more privatisation of health care in Ireland with all that that entails, and we know Reilly want’s to hand the health service over to private insurance companies.

Roisin asks a pointed question: “If the Labour party isn’t about the allocation of resource based on need then what is it about?”

Over to you Eamon.

fair play to her. the only one in the labour party with a back bone

No matter what side of the Reilly / shorthall fence you’re on her being free to speak about the whole thing is probably the best chance we have to find out what they’re at up in the big smoke…

Looks like she discovered at an early stage alright that Reilly’s agenda and that what was agreed as a programme for Government,jointly between the Coalition Parties, were just not the same.

Reilly clearly has an agenda , from what Roisin stated, to introduce a pay or lie down ,suffer and die, medical system, which will be redesigned by him & his FG colleagues, to leave the poorer in our society to be neglected.

In fairness to him , does he not represent the view of any far right wing political party in this philosophy?

What must sicken her most , I’m sure , is that her Labour colleagues supported his policy over hers – shame on you Labour!

I dont follow either party,but i believe she was shafted…Big Time…

They don’t want reform, they want privitisation so they can give it to their criminal vested interests. It a neoliberal agenda and its the same in all effected nations across Europe. Just look at the situation in England where some of the Tories biggest donors were given billions of NHS contracts in the breakup of their health service. Its a massive con job carried out by white collar criminals.

I listened to the interview and it is clear she was shafted by Gilmore.

Not surprising since power is more important than principle for Gilmore.

Anyway Roisin you have the upper hand. Prove it by refusing your ministerial pension.

The wrong Minister resigned.

My respect for her is there and it is clear she was abandoned. I know what it is like to work in a place and try to point glaring inequalities only to have no support. I too left because I was not supported. If I turned a blind eye and just did lip service like everyone else I could have stayed but Principals are such that you either live by them or you don’t. Either way your conscience will decide. I respect her very much for what she did and I hope that other Labour Td’s follow suit. It is the only way they will salvage any support in future to go now because staying in government with Fianna Gael is doing them damage on a daily basis.

@David, she was not a minister for education or social affairs. Her brief was health.

Nice to see all the Fine Gael and Labour Shills posting comments.

This government are worse than Fianna Fail!

Fair play to her! She has done the professional thing by resigning from her post. She would be foolish to support a failed business man trying to line his pockets from the crumbling health care system. His ways of saving money so far has been to keep the recruitment ban. This means agency workers have to be employed to keep services rolling over ( mostly young graduates). This costs the HSE significantly more as 15% of their salary goes to a recruitment agency i.e. private investors. This niche market has been expanded by the inability of the HSE to recruit new staff. Please stop this practice Mr Reilly!

I think the way Roisin shorthall has been treated by labour has really shown them up for the charlatans they really are.

Idiots have you never heard of principles she was elected as a labour candidate and unlike the rest of them bar nultey broughan she stuck to labour principles. She had no choice without selling out

Anyone here, ever hear of a bad boss or a boss serving their own interests. For Example, Sean Quinn, Wallace,Lowry, Haughey,Ahern and I could go on? I would like to see all the parties wiped out in an Election and new people or parties brought in. But Shortall was shafted, by the power hungry labour. If they backed her, they wouldnt have qualified for their pensions!

It’s either get my big fat juicy pension and milk it for as much as I can way or the have morals and principles way. an easy choice for Gilmore and his Labour ministers methinks!

wait till budget comes in, then we will see the government fall like a house of cards, wont last past mid 2013

Was she looking to increase frontline staff or pencil pushers??? Because it’s her party protecting the pencil pushers in the Croke Park Agreement.

That picture is scary …….

Should have resigned earlier so. There was never any doubt that Reilly would be given the firm support by the government parties, regardless, and she would have known that. She was so disheartened by the whole thing she then decided to keep going anyway and voted with confidence. If her speech was supposed to make a difference, than she didn’t give it much time to settle.

James Reilly is a Senior Government Minister in one of the worst positions you could possibly be given and was never going to be booted out because a Senior Ministerial resignation would rock the government. Fianna Fail seem to know it all and have solutions, despite being the ones in the power and having people in the post for centuries who failed just as much as Reilly appears to be doing now. Reilly makes some valid points re: Croke Park being a major problem in terms of fixing the health service. I like the proposal for primary health care units also. But is he doing enough?

Could he do more, quicker? What was wrong with increasing staff as per Shortall proposal? I doubt we will ever know, but I suspect there are two sides to the story. Its been less than two years and I don’t think its fair to suggest the health service be turned around even slightly within such a tight timeframe. Movement is being made. Leave him at it, see how it goes. Maybe this pressure will move things on.

Why is the severance pay available if you volentarily resign I hope she refuses to take it, then we can believe she has really got “principles” as distinct from “princible”.

Regardless of how one believes her resignation to reflect on Shortall herself, the Labour Party’s treatment of her carries far more weight than what is, essentially, a departmental spat. The ostracization by Gilmore and his subordinates of one of their own in the name of preserving their position in government has been immensely damaging to the coalition as a whole, and belies a seriously skewed sense of priority on the part of the party leadership.
http://perspectivesbyjack.blogspot.ie/

Its odd is it not that the great Labour Hero of the morning Roisin Shortall didn’t resign over cuts to Welfare or Education or Carers or SNAs or OAPs or any other cuts and savage austerity measures but when James Reilly tells her that he’s the Minister and as his junior she should do whats she’s told she’s out the door and all over the media.<<<< I'm just going to look up how you spell Hypocrisy ..

She didn’t like the boss so she left the job. Her call.

Shorthall get over yourself, you just an attention seeker who was never happy just getting a junior post. Hope we don’t see you in politics again.

Shorthall was annoyed from day one that she was not made a minister. She resented playing second fiddle to anybody. Time will show her what a gig mistake she has made. She is very bitter.

What would happen if my boss failed to implement my recommendations? Would I get sympathy from my work colleagues if I resigned because the boss did not accede to my demands.

The real question here is… does her resignation mean that we will be able to continue to buy moderately priced booze not?

Betty
This is politics, the art of the possible.
Labour are the junior party in a coalition so their “principles” are always going to come second best when push comes to shove.
The big payoff will come as a comfort though.

We should be encouraging that sort of victim treatment of a health system that doesn’t work..