Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
HEALTH MINISTER JAMES Reilly was forced to apologise to a nurse who sang as he left the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) conference yesterday when he remarked “stick to the day job”.
After arriving to the silent treatment, the Minister’s speech to the conference had been relatively well received having joked about his fall earlier in the week and announced the appointment of a chief nursing officer, drawing applause from delegates.
But the mood changed as Reilly concluded his speech and departed the conference hall in Letterkenny with nurse Bolatito Aderemi, 61, singing “all we are saying, is enough is enough” which prompted Reilly to quip: “Stick to the day job”.
The incident can be seen here from 6 minutes and 15 seconds in.
The remark drew criticism from nurses and Reilly later revealed how he defused the matter by meeting privately with Aderemi and apologising to her:
YouTube: IRLINMO
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Was that really such an offensive comment?
Agreed. It’s one of those throwaway comments Irish people make without even realising it.
When it is anyone else, no.
When it’s the Minister for Health, How dare he?!
None of the coverage of this incident has assessed whether it was sound advise or not…
Maybe she really has a poor singing voice ;-)
When the line is delivered by a pompous baffon , that has an utter contempt for everyone, then its a problem.He should stick to the day job.And thats not ministering. Investing in property or is he out of stubbs yet
I heard her singing on radio 1 news, first time I agree with him, she should stick to day job – no big deal as a comment. A few anal retentive hyper sensitive eejits complaining.
No it was a humorous comment and the lady concerned was being seriously rude. But of course that’s par for the course with PS employees and their Unions. Serious bad manners to invite a guest and then treat him in that fashion . The Caring Profession my ass.
100% agree. SPOT ON RICK MACRORY
You can’t call all public sector workers rude based on your interpretation of one persons actions. Frankly I don’t think there’s any story here, in her actions or his.
It’s not really fair to generalise about the whole public sector, slightly unfair no? Having worked in public sector for 12 years I have encountered a few rude people yes but I have also have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic staff too!
Obviously you love this government and have a disliking to the PS , ignorance is bliss
Have the Journal.ie, anything better to report on?
This should be in The Daily Edge!
Fair play to her for singing her protest , good on her, and she accepted O’Reilly’s apology so no big deal one way or the other.
That nurse, and whoever is winding her up should take a chill pill , if she was smart enough to sing her protest she should be able for his response which was well timed witty and so Irish . We all want give and take , so don’t give it if you can’t take it, and in my opinion and I’m no fan if calamity James. No apology was necessary.
Whatever about his suitability for the job, this is nit picking at best. It’s a common inoffensive cliche. The people who complained need to get over themselves.
A1 Sharon.
Well it’s another example of arrogance from a man who is supposed to be serving our nation.
She should be apologizing to him…..this whole heckling business is immature and not remotely constructive!
Your FG membership renewal notice is in the post Dylan. Imagine Heckling the poor guy, he must be devastated.
If politicians don’t want to be heckled then they should start with themselves, have you ever seen the carry on in the Dail?
Constructive criticism: Yes. Heckling: No. There is never an excuse for rudeness – even Hitler would have deserved to be treated with appropriate respect before being shot in the head.
The nurse in question is going the wrong way if she takes ‘serious’ offence to the comment in the belief that it will serve their cause. O Reilly is an ass clown but the nurses will come off worse if they try to capitalise on this off-hand remark.
Lets face it, he was right!! She couldn’t sing…
Clearly she likes to dish it out but cant take it.
What are you talking about? He apologised and she accepted it.
He was dead right to tell her stick to the day job. If I was to heckle and be that down right mannered to my boss I’d soon be picking up my p45
I am by no means a fan of his, but seriously, that is not an offensive comment, it is a quip used in everyday life in this country to lighten the mood, the idea that he had to apologise is even ridiculous… Just saying.
I wish he’d stuck to the day job. Bottler is notorious for his brusqueness, procrastination, and inactivity.
On the contrary, his medical practise was highly successful.
Inactivity is very accurate. I sent a detailed cost saving measure that would save conservatively 180 million if applied. Just a generic reply. Never considered. It was simply introducing a 10 euros charge per physio visit in public system for those who could pay
Sadly Peter your suggestion was inappropriately logical and far too pragmatic for a governmental department to consider . Anyway no idea is worth anything unless the egomaniacs have thunk it up themselves or more importantly if it is politically expedient
If he didn’t keep Enda in his job, he’d have been gone a long time ago.
Won’t help the nurse get a recording contract either way.
Jes give the guy a break how times a week do we say that to some, he was obviously just trying to have a bit of craic, where is the sense of humor gone.
Another non-story by RTÉ, picked up by The Journal. The magnification of this story above actual news and analysis from the INMO conference offers a nice smokescreen to hide the nurses’ and midwives’ legitimate criticisms of the health service, the Government, the cuts and Reilly.
As someone who has worked as a news cameraman I know how theses ‘stories’ are crafted and facilitated by reporters ‘in the moment’. The narratives are contrived and fueled by reporters, and without their manipulation wouldn’t be stories at all. We all know there are more important issues relating to our health system, and that the INMO have been to the fore in addressing them, but this non-story obscures those, solicits some kind of sympathy for Reilly, and portrays nurses not as medical professionals with important insights into the workings, and non-workings of the health service, but as haughty and overly sensitive spoilsports.
Was Reilly’s comment offensive? Well that is subjective. Is it important that his comment may or may not have been offensive, or that it was even uttered? Not really. Of far more salience, and a much better sign of his disrespect and indifference to nurses and midwives and the people they care for, is his mismanagement of the health service, his skewed priorities in terms of health planning and spending, his government’s cuts to vital health supports, and his government’s attacks on wages, conditions and recruitment.
Might I suggestion O’Reilly that he go back to his day job because he just seems to be making an absolute Haimes of his current one.
Elizabeth he wouldn’t be welcome back into a profession he has destroyed since taking office- he would be run out of it and I would be leading the charge . There are plenty examples of his porcine ways , this is probably not one of them even if it was a flippant comment . Ironically he is probably hoping that she does stick to her day job because nobody would take any of the new jobs they are offering in nursing anyways .
Gary, was he not in private practice before politics. I agree with your point if he were to go to work in a hospital again, I would love to be a fly on the wall if that scenario ever presented itself. I also agree that it was a flippant remark but I don’t think he is in a position to deliver such a remark considering the piss poor job he is doing. Was the protestor right with their actions? No, but two wrongs don’t make a right and this man should just learn when to shut up.
He was a GP Elizabeth in a large urban practice and as a GP I wouldn’t welcome him back . I’m not going to whine about the disproportionality of his cuts etc because I think everyone has that argument nowadays though they are real , but for someone who had this grand vision for health 3 years ago , his journey to reform is full of contradictions and unrealistic promises . Both he and Harney ( O’Reilly-lite) will guarantee that the Irish Health Service will be the most understaffed medically while emigrating contemporaries will enjoy better training , working conditions and remuneration elsewhere . O Reilly is full of pomp , bombast and promise but the reality is those on the ground have to keep reminding service users to keep expectations low regarding a reform that will be meaningful to them
Just to be clear here Gary, you and I are both singing off the same sheet here (day job or not;)). The only thing I am not in agreement with you on is that Reilly is Harney-lite but that he is merely the male version of the same persona.
Like the day or night job comment . I guess I see O Reilly and Harney as two halves of the same rotten egg . Both obviously have different identities , but both promised much reform but in dismantling the health service they forgot about building it back up stronger , more streamlined etc . O’Reilly is a poacher turned game keeper which makes him marginally the more repugnant . But Mary brought all her dubious business credentials to successive governments and finally into health and tried to operate it as a business . We all saw what low tax PD policy brought is to . Her FEMPI put us both inside and outside of Croker allowing cuts at her whim and O Reilly has pursued her agenda along with his own business type model for free Health care which like PD tax policy will be consigned to the bin in a few years .
Wait…Mary Harney was a woman? Since when?
As for James Reilly…I think most of us hoped, against hope, that as a Doctor, the guy would know what is best for the patient and thus provide us with a far greater health service. But no, the guy is one of the worst health ministers we have had since Micheal Martin.
I still maintain Martin was the worst of the health ministers we have had. Harney was bad, I will not dispute that, for a minute, but alot of the crap she had to try and fix was caused by Martin.
Reilly just seems to be compounding the entire crud, while looking out for himself and his friends.
He’s the one who should go back to his day job.
Conor
You should apologise !
Doctor, i wouldn’t let him near my dog
If he’s telling her to stick to the day job then she should be relieved that her job is safe ;)
‘Stick to the day job… Until of course I make sure you don’t have it anymore’
@everlast Now that would have been interesting if he said that!! How about a cage fight JAMES REILLY v LIAM DORAN
“It’s not been the best week for the Minister for Health”, says your sub-head.
Can anyone remember any good week he has had?
@John Aldridge
The Week before he started the job.
And the best week he will have is when his term is over abs that pension kicks in
Jesus christ whats peoples problem generalising all pubkic sector as the same job, fair enough there is alot of 9-5 office jobs but tell thay to the gardai and nurses who work night shift bank holidays xmas day , when everyone was gettin big pay rises in the celtic tiger public sector workers got fk all , as for this government and its spin doctors they havent a fkn clus whats going on
Are u kidding? The PS didn’t benefit from benchmarking during the boom, ie you got a pay rise simply because you were in a role? Didnt hear much complaining out of the PS ….. Benchmarking shouldn’t be like rents…. Upward only
Well said, Ollie. All workers should stick together and not fall into traps designed to divide us.
Stick to the day job haha. Legend!!
He’s an arrogant fat man that no doubt has to resort to stupid throw away remarks to compensate for a lack in other departments more than likely south of his belt buckle..
I wish he stuck to his day job as a doctor.
What does being fat have to do with it?
Christ he looks unhealthy!!
I genuinely can’t see the big deal with this. It was a dumb comment given the setting and the nurse in question certainly made the most of it. The conference was a missed opportunity to take that stroke merchant to the woodshop, can’t believe this was the headline.
How many times had an article began with…it’s not been the best week for the Minister of Health?
I propose a one off The Voice of Ireland special, with the nurse and the Minister. Whoever wins gets to keep their day job :)
This comment from this personification of arrogance and ignorance sums up tje attitude of FG towards those of us who provide VITAL public services. Minister Shatter jokes about closing Garda stations and then..thw day after a murdered Garda was laid to rest announces closure of 90! A junior minister refers to retained firefighters as “not real” firefighters…i think two families and station parties in Limerick & Bray would have a differant viewpoint! And their pets in Labour are no differant…Howlin issues the threats for his thatcherite masters.
I am totally demoralised and have lost all confidence in my elected reps….i dream of a dail of Donnellys…who actually know and understand the concepts of government
O’Reilly is tough. He takes no BS from the INMO or other vested interested in the “Health Service”. The unions have succeeded for many years in stopping the necessary change required to make the system efficient. They attack the various health ministers rather than deal with the real issues. The result of this is we have a service more focused on the benefits of nurses and doctors rather than on the health of the patients.
When change is proposed then “we will go on strike” is threatened. So much for the Florence Nightingales!
As usual the public pays!
Well said
At least he didn’t say “stick with the kebabs”.
Has Conor Lenihan ever lived that one down?
And didn’t another TD claim he di a Nazi salute or similar kind of gesture towards him on another occassion?
I believe it was Richard Bruton.
Fair point sean ,but if I woke up after a night on the batter with Mary Lou I could live with that, if I woke up beside oreilly I’d be like your man Stephen rea in the crying game ( shower scene )
Strangely, my comment about Mary Lou’s weight gain was deleted…yet my comment about Mary Harney possibly not being a woman is still around.
Sorry, I just noted that when your comment was responding to a different comment of mine. I thought there had been some computing or software error. Looks more like my earlier post got the kibosh.
Ah well, I’m not bitter.
James!
You really should go back to your day job.
That is my diagnosis.
He should follow his own advice considering his previous ventures as a property magnate.
Only Shatter owns more property than Really and he aas listed as a debtor in Stubbs gazette.
outrage…outrage…blah…blah…outrage…blah..blah..outrage…
Any excuse, what?
Look at the big gombeen head on him.How in the hell did he ever become a medical doctor???
This guy is some clown, what an oaf
Chauvinist pig. He has history and wouldn’t say it to a man. Fat coward blueshirt.
She works nights
Ignorant pr**k
have your say