ANALYSIS:Apart from the debate about stroke politics, the Minister for Health is a lightning rod for public and party anger, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
A S EACH day passes, James Reilly is learning the truth of the maxim that politics is a cruel trade. He clearly intends to battle on but the unrelenting pressure will be difficult to withstand as time goes on, particularly as it appears to be taking a toll on the Government he serves.
The latest twist in the complex saga of the Balbriggan primary care centre does not appear particularly damaging in itself. If the Minister is right, then long-time Fine Gael member Séamus Murphy will not benefit from the project as the selected site is actually under the control of the National Asset Management Agency.
More importantly, Reilly is adamant that he had nothing to do with the decision by which the specific site in Balbriggan was chosen by the Health Service Executive for the development of a primary care unit.
As if the whole primary care centre saga was not complicated enough, further twists in the story, as it relates to the Balbriggan site, emerged during the Minister’s appearance in the Dáil to answer questions yesterday afternoon.
It seems that the Minister wrongly concluded that the Balbriggan site was selected by the HSE in 2010, during Mary Harney’s term as minister for health. Ruairí Quinn defended his Cabinet colleague on this basis later in the Dáil. That was not the case, however, and the site was selected while Reilly was in office, even though he had nothing to do with its selection.
All in all, it appears that the latest controversy is not what it seems and Opposition claims of cronyism on Reilly’s part in relation to the deal don’t seem to have a foundation. However, the fact that the controversy developed legs so quickly on a flimsy basis is a clear indication of how much trouble the Fine Gael deputy leader is in.
In every government, one minister gets targeted by the opposition and becomes the lightning rod for public anger. In this Coalition, Reilly has become the target both by virtue of his personality and the office he holds.
Every minister for health for the past two decades has been a sitting target for fierce criticism. It was not for nothing that Brian Cowen dubbed the Department of Health “Angola” because of the inevitability of unforeseen landmines going off at regular intervals.
As a medical doctor, with long-standing knowledge of the scene, Reilly of all people should not be surprised by the way he has been singled out for attack. On top of that, in opposition he gave Mary Harney no quarter day in and day out in the Dáil so he can hardly complain at the relentless criticism being directed at himself.
If the Minister is being subjected to unfair claims of cronyism, he remains vulnerable on the wider issue of why two towns in his constituency, Balbriggan and Swords, were among those added to the approved list of primary care centres.
The only conclusion is that Reilly was using his position to play constituency politics not only on his own behalf in North Dublin but also around the country where extra centres were added in vulnerable Fine Gael constituencies. This does not amount to the kind of corruption alleged by the Opposition. But it is deeply disappointing that the Government which promised to change the way politics was conducted in Ireland has succumbed to old-fashioned stroke politics.
There is some uneasiness in both Government parties over the disclosures about the way the changes were made in the primary care centre list. But so far, the remarkable thing is the fact that cracks have not emerged between the two Coalition parties.
Some surprise has been expressed in the media about the way in which senior Labour figures abandoned junior minister Róisín Shortall to her fate, but that flows from a misreading of her status within the party.
Shortall is an aggressive political operator who has made plenty of enemies both within and outside the Labour Party. In 1993, during her first Dáil term, she lost the Labour whip for defying government plans to streamline Aer Lingus. Since then, she has not shied away from confrontation with successive party leaders. Given both their combative personalities, conflict between Shortall and Reilly was inevitable from the beginning.
Long before she resigned, some of her party colleagues could not disguise their exasperation with Shortall’s refusal to compromise with her senior Minister.
The way in which she resigned the party whip, as well as resigning as a minister, also went down badly with sections of the parliamentary Labour Party. Some former colleagues feel that she took the easy option by crossing over to the Opposition benches, where she will have the luxury of voting against tough budgetary measures, rather than going to the Labour backbenches and seeking to change Government policy from the inside.
One way or another, her resignation has amounted to a significant headache for party leader and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore. Since the formation of the Coalition there has been a small disgruntled element in the party which has found a focus for unhappiness with Government policy in muted criticism of his leadership.
The party’s Ireland East MEP, Nessa Childers, has given voice to this frustration on a number of occasions and, together with fellow MEP Phil Prendergast, called for Reilly’s resignation yesterday. While Childers is not influential, the Reilly/Shortall controversy may give encouragement to some of the other disaffected members of the party to emerge into open revolt.
The really dangerous thing for Gilmore is that more mainstream TDs, who have so far loyally supported tough budgetary measures, are also disturbed at the way Reilly handled the whole primary care issue. This could prompt them into voicing misgivings in the run-up to the budget.
On the Fine Gael side, there has been no wavering in public support for Reilly but there is growing exasperation at the way he continues to get in the firing line. There is also some uneasiness among party TDs about the way in which constructive discussion among backbenchers about economic issues has been construed as criticism of the leadership.
For the moment, both Fine Gael and Labour TDs remain solid in spite of the Reilly/Shortall affair. But there are signs of nerves beginning to fray just as the critical moment in the Coalition’s life looms in the form of December’s budget.
Stephen Collins is Political Editor