Shortall: Reilly has questions to answer
Junior Minister Roisín Shortall says the Health Minister James Reilly has questions to answer about why two locations in his constituency were added to a list of places chosen for primary care centres after the final list had been drawn up by the HSE.
Minister Shortall said today that she didn't know why Swords and Balbriggan were added to the priority list for building new primary care centres.
She has also refused to say that she has confidence in Minister Reilly, despite being asked three times by journalists in Balbriggan this morning.
Minister Shortall says it's up to Minister Reilly to explain why the extra centres were added.
“You know, I engaged in the process with the HSE and the department to identify the centres and location that we thought should have priority.
“Obviously there were additional locations added to that list and I don’t want to comment any further on that.
“That’s not a question for me, that’s a question for Minister Reilly. I don’t know why.”
Meanwhile, the Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald has defended Reilly.
Fitzgerald says Reilly is committed to delivering primary care centres: “Well I think the optics are that he wants to deliver primary care centres. There was a list of 200 and it is down to the first 35 now.
“If you want to look at each of the places individually, each one on the list is in need of a primary care centre. There’s no doubt about that.”
Fianna Fáil have reacted angrily to this morning's reports. Their health spokesperson Billy Kelleher said it was 'deeply unsettling'.
Kelleher added: "At face value, it appears that political interference has taken place in a selection process that is both of enormous clinical importance and significant commercial value.
“This morning I have written to the Clerk of the Health Committee to ask that the Committee be convened on Monday to question Minister Reilly on how the primary care strategy could have been so seriously undermined and to establish what role he had in adding locations to a HSE list."
Earlier this week, in a speech to the Dáil, Shortall also refused to give Reilly her backing:
