TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has insisted that Education Minister Ruairí Quinn has “full confidence” in his Cabinet colleague James Reilly, the Health Minister who has come under fire in recent months.
Kenny was responding to claims from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that Quinn had indicated that Reilly was “not up to the job” as reported by the Sunday Independent at the weekend.
The paper said that Quinn had told a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party last week that Cabinet colleagues shared Labour backbenchers’ concerns that Reilly was “not up to the job”.
Reilly has come under pressure in recent months following controversy about the selection of sites for proposed primary care centres in his constituency, which led to the resignation of junior health minister Róisín Shortall, as well as an overspend in the health budget.
Martin said that Quinn was ”fast becoming the poster boy of breathtaking political cynicism in this house” but Kenny insisted that the government was “absolutely at one” adding: ”Minister Quinn has full confidence in Minister Reilly”.
Kenny said that Reilly would “fulfil his mandate as Minister for Health” and said that the Cabinet was focused on the mandate that had been given to it by the people in last year’s election as the government prepares for its second budget tomorrow afternoon.
Martin pointed out that Quinn has neither confirmed nor denied that he made the comments attributed to him by the Sunday Independent.
The opposition leader said that Reilly’s position was further compromised by the next estimate on health spending which would “wreak further damage on the health service”.
The Taoiseach insisted: “I can assure you that Minister Quinn has full confidence in Minister Reilly and far from you saying that you made no claim here, you’re just after saying that what you read in the newspapers is the truth, as if you were there [at the Labour parliamentary party meeting].”
Kenny also referred to the previous government’s comments about the International Monetary Fund not being in Ireland in the days leading up to the bailout two years ago and remarked to Martin that “your amnesia is setting in here at a very early stage, politically speaking.”
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams challenged Kenny over the reported decision by the government to cut child benefit by €10 in tomorrow’s Budget and said there was “still time to pull back” from the decision.
Kenny would not be drawn on the specific decisions made in relation to the Budget and said there was “less than 24 hours to go” before the details would be revealed by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan.
He said that the government had worked “very hard” to make the measures to be announced tomorrow “as fair and equitable as possible”.
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