Another day, another James Reilly/FG scandal.

Ghandee · 21-12-2012 11:14am #1

Dear oh dear oh dear.

When will Dr Reilly ever learn?

HEALTH Minister James Reilly knew a site owned by one of his supporters was in line to be the location for a primary care centre months before he bumped the town it was situated in up a priority list.

Internal documents from the Department of Health show Dr Reilly was told by his officials about the site in Balbriggan in his Dublin North constituency.

The site was owned by Seamus Murphy, a Fine Gael supporter from Balbriggan, who was in NAMA.

A briefing document prepared for Dr Reilly before he met NAMA said: "A developer has identified a site in the town which is being used as a surface car park. GPs have committed to locate here.

"The site has been on the market for 10/12 weeks and the outcome of this process is awaited."

Dr Reilly met with NAMA on April 20 to discuss various sites that could be used for health purposes, such as for primary care centres and the children's hospital.

Dr Reilly previously told the Dail that Balbriggan was discussed, but specific addresses in the town were not. Minutes of the meeting say "progress at a number of PCC (primary care centres) was discussed", including Balbriggan.

The details are contained in documents obtained by Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty.

The minister's spokesman last night insisted that no specific addresses were discussed at the NAMA meeting.

Dr Reilly bumped Balbriggan and Swords up a priority list for primary care centres, which caused massive controversy and led to the resignation of Roisin Shortall as junior minister.

Dr Reilly last month admitted he included Balbriggan in the list as a safety net to ensure its primary care centre was built.

Doubts

There had been serious doubts hanging over the private development of the Balbriggan centre in the months before Dr Reilly put it on the priority list.

When asked if he included Balbriggan because there was a doubt over whether it would proceed, Dr Reilly told the Irish Independent: "Yeah, at the time there was a serious doubt about the lease arrangement going ahead. It looked like it was going to fall through."

Documents show the developer of the primary care centre, AJ Noonan, had been dealing with site owner Seamus Murphy and NAMA for months, but was becoming exasperated.

Dr Reilly was aware of negotiations on the site, but has maintained that he had no "hand, act or part" in the selection of the site.

Just what will it take for Dr Reilly to step aside, or be forced to step aside?

He continues to attract scandal after scandal, and I think Enda should be very careful with Reilly in his Govt.

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas after all.

Mr Benevolent · 21-12-2012 11:16am

This is old news. Politician in local votes shocker. Nothing remarkable, move along.

Duggy747 · 21-12-2012 11:20am

Reilly caught on tape about the whole scenario:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SAekw7wUo

Robbo · 21-12-2012 11:23am

Obligatory Father Fintan Stack reference.

davet82 · 21-12-2012 11:28am

unfortunately nobody cares

dvpower · 21-12-2012 11:42am

davet82 wrote: »

unfortunately nobody cares

Ghandee cares enough for 10 men.

spank_inferno · 21-12-2012 11:45am

People forget.

Before Ireland's favourite secondary school teacher was elected Taoiseach, many of his party colleagues tried to oust him from leadership.

It was O'Reilly & Big-Phil Hogan who led the counter-insurgancy and retained Kinny as leader.

Now its pay-back.

No matter how either perform they will never be removed from their ministerial office.
Our Inda simply owes them too much.

davet82 · 21-12-2012 11:48am

spank_inferno wrote: »

People forget.

Before Ireland's favourite secondary school teacher was elected Taoiseach, many of his party colleagues tried to oust him from leadership.

It was O'Reilly & Big-Phil Hogan who led the counter-insurgancy and retained Kinny as leader.

Now its pay-back.

No matter how either perform they will never be removed from their ministerial office.
Our Inda simply owes them too much.

so two free passes to act the bollix...

Ghandee · 21-12-2012 11:54am

dvpower wrote: »

Ghandee cares enough for 10 men.

I'm only caring on Enda's behalf.

WeNeed Another General Election · 21-12-2012 12:03pm

Ghandee wrote: »

Dear oh dear oh dear.

When will Dr Reilly ever learn?

Just what will it take for Dr Reilly to step aside, or be forced to step aside?

He continues to attract scandal after scandal, and I think Enda should be very careful with Reilly in his Govt.

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas after all.

if we hit the streets to demand he step down he'd be gone by this evening

dvpower · 21-12-2012 12:46pm

WeNeed Another General Election wrote: »

if we hit the streets to demand he step down he'd be gone by this evening

But you're not going to hit the streets, are you?

seamus · 21-12-2012 12:55pm

Someone's going to have to explain the issue here like I'm a five year old. I suspect the article in the OP is deliberately written in such a way to avoid any potential defamation, but it just makes it confusing.

Here's what I'm getting;

- A briefing document is prepared on the PCCs, which includes details of the Balbriggan site, presumably along with a load of other sites.

- Reilly meets with NAMA for a discussion on the PCC along with other matters. He claims that the specific sites were not discussed, just the general locations. The minutes of the meeting do not contradict this.

- Reilly under rather suspect circumstances bumped Balbriggan and Swords on to the PCC list but not the specific sites on which they would be built

I'm presuming the author here and SF are attempting to imply that Reilly personally selected the FG supporter's site in Balbriggan as the location of a PCC, but know that they have so little evidence to back up this allegation that they won't say that?
Am I understanding the issue correctly?

sfwcork · 21-12-2012 1:00pm

His the biggest clown in the country.come june or july when the ps is behind target again he will bullsh!t everybody again and enda will lick behind his ear to show how much he loves him

Biggins · 21-12-2012 1:09pm

davet82 wrote: »

so two free passes to act the bollix...

...And as the Labour TD don't qualify for their life-time pensions till they are in power and/or elected for two years (March 2013) which is the qualifying deadline - don't expect Labour to do or say anything which might cause them to abandon their bullying political partners which is treating Labour the way the rest of the country is being used and abused.

After March - life in the Dail WILL get more interesting!

seamus · 21-12-2012 1:15pm

Though I imagine many of the government TDs are already well past their minimum two-years' service, it's an interesting observation Biggins. Definitely one to note if we start to see a sudden rise in dissent from the backbenchers (who are more likely to be first-termers) next year.

mikom · 21-12-2012 1:17pm

Fake snakes

Comments disabled.
Their respite care grants cut as well I suppose.

Also lol at the extreme close-up halfway through and the "buzz" words that follow it.

Biggins · 21-12-2012 1:46pm

seamus wrote: »

Though I imagine many of the government TDs are already well past their minimum two-years' service, it's an interesting observation Biggins. Definitely one to note if we start to see a sudden rise in dissent from the backbenchers (who are more likely to be first-termers) next year.

Many indeed have qualified many times (as you note) - remember also just as FF got suck a kicking at the last election, the result was that a massive new number of first time elected TD's on FG and Labour side resulted from the electoral slaughter FF (rightly I feel) got.

Its those that the old brass knows will want to see out their two years at least and till then will shove their agendas pass to some extent before that timeline is reached.
This includes the more controversial issues including the abortion and budget issues.
(Had those two alone been tried to be pass in one year from now, those still in Labour alone might not have voted with the FG Mafia as wished I suspect.)

As we have seen, there is a sudden rush to get a number of laws enacted not just before Christmas but in the next few months. I don't think for one second they are doing it all in a rush out of the goodness of their cold hearts (which they are off now home for 23+ days on holiday for, to warm!).

Now there is news by the way of a cabinet re-shuffle in the next few months also.
Guess which party might be offered choice positions in order to possibly keep them sweet and in line still after the two year pension deadline?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/enda-kenny-hints-at-cabinet-reshuffle-within-six-months-3333625.html