Tag Archives: Dr James Reilly

Expertly handled.

This afternoon.

Pavilion, Swords, County Dublin.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) meets his public with Fine Gael by-election candidate and former Minister for Health, Senator James Reilly right).

The by-election will take place next Friday week, November 29. Candidates here.

 Sam Boal/RollingNews

90306028

Senator Dr James Reilly

This morning.

The Standards in Public Office Commission published its report on the election expenses made by candidates and parties between February 3, 2016 and February 26, 2016.

It reported:

Election expenses of €8.39 million were disclosed by candidates and political parties at the 2016 general election, a decrease of almost 10% on the €11.08 million figure reported for the 2011 election.

…Donations with a total value of €112,320.38 were disclosed by 102 unsuccessful candidates (equivalent figure in 2011 was €285,618).

The Standards Commission has referred 66 files to the Gardaí in relation to possible contraventions of the Act at the Dáil election, including failures to return donation statements, certificates of monetary donations, statutory declarations, statements from a financial institution, or election expenses statements.

One of the 66 files concerned former Health Minister, Senator and deputy leader of Fine Gael Dr James Reilly – in relation to a €1,000 cash donation.

The donation Dr Reilly received was €800 over the cash limit, of €200, and SIPO found Dr Reilly failed to provide proof that he returned the €800 to the donor.

Further to this…

Dr Reilly told the Today with Sean O’Rourke show:

“Just for starters, I only found out about this about 20 minutes ago. Look, in fairness to SIPO, they have a job to do. They wrote to me. I declared everything honestly. I declared a €1,000 of a cash donation. When I realised that that was actually excess of what one is allowed, in terms of cash, without declaring the identity of the individual who, given to me, whose a personal friend of mine for many years and whose a neighbour and a farmer. I handed the money back to him.

“They subsequently wrote to me and asked me to give them a receipt for that and I fully intended to give it to them but, with everything else that was going on, in my own personal life in terms of, you know, and we moved out of our house in Moneygall, closed the sale on the Friday before Christmas, so there was a ferocious amount of activity.

“I’ve been back in my practice trying to reorganise that as well, I had a change of staff and somebody recently only joined so that person can’t possibly be held responsible for an oversight that happened in an interregnum while somebody else who was there had left and I was trying to fill space. So basically, I put my hand up, I forgot to give them a receipt. I can have that receipt to them, I certainly could have the receipt in my hand by lunchtime.

“I declared the €1,000. I did not try, at any point in time, to do anything dishonest. I declared the €1,000, realised the error and then, when it was pointed out to me, handed the money (€800) back to the gentleman concerned and I’m sure, I’m sorry for him that he would be brought into any public controversy over this. So, that’s the long and the short of it…”

Listen back to Dr Reilly’s interview in full here

Rollingnews

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From top: Loughton House, Dr James Reilly

For those of us who wondered how did Dr James Reilly sleep at night when he was minister for health at a time when our health service was so woefully and devastatingly inept, the question was answered in your newspaper.

He slept exceptionally well on a deep feather mattress in a “royal, carved-oak, sleigh bed made for King George IV’s visit to Ireland” in a 13-bedroom, 1,393sq m (15,000sq ft) Georgian mansion. And how did he relieve the stresses of his day? Chopping logs on his 82-acre estate.

Eimear Morhan,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.

James Reilly’s big estate (Irish Times letters page)

Pics: MyHome.ie/Rollingnews

90254663[Noel Daly and Health Minister James Reilly]

A review of maternity services in the West triggered in part by the death of Savita Halappanavar has been shelved.
The decision, confirmed yesterday by the HSE’s West/North West Hospitals Group, comes in the wake of the resignation of group chairman Noel Daly earlier this month after it emerged he had a 50% stake in the consultancy D&F Health Partnership — which carried out the review

Thud.

Maternity services review deferred after resignation (Catherine Shanahan, Irish Examiner)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

90318934(Health Minister Dr James Reilly)

[James Reilly] said he would fix the problem in the CRC and across all other agencies, but it cannot be resolved “at the drop of a hat.”

He asked the public to trust in the fact that he will deal with the situation properly.

The minister said it was not fair that “front line staff are working so hard and that they’re fully compliant that others are not and we’re not going to tolerate that.”

Mr Reilly said there are people working in the Department of Health who were approved for higher salaries but they were granted permission to do so by the department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform after discussions with both departments.

 

Meanwhile…

He also rejected claims by the Central Remedial Clinic that it had cut a deal with the Health Service Executive in 2009 to allow them to top up salaries.

Reilly rejects call for independent inquiry into top-ups (RTE)

Previously: CRC And The HSE

24/5/2013 Third National Patient Safety ConferencesBottler.

He simply can’t help himself.

All the money so far provided from a funding boost for autism services announced by Minister for Health James Reilly last year has been spent on cutting waiting lists for children with the condition in his political heartland in north Dublin, newly released documents show.

Just €300,000 of the €3 million promised over three years by Dr Reilly in January 2012 has so far been allocated, all of it to north Dublin, according to the documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Dr Reilly’s announcement in January 2012 of an additional €3 million in funding for children with autism appears to have taken his own officials by surprise, the documents show. One told a colleague in an internal email that it was “news to me” while another referred to the matter as coming “out of the blue”.

 

All the money.

All €300,000 allocated from autism fund spent in Reilly’s north Dublin heartland (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

Analysis: Minister’s indecision blocked €3m autism support (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

Meanwhile, why does Dr Reilly’s personal website reilly.ie forward to the Department of Health’s site?

Anyone?

Any excuse

(Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland)

90298290The six doctors will see you now.

 

Dr [James] Reilly said on Monday that women expressing suicide ideation would not have to be interviewed by six doctors, but Labour sources last night insisted he was continuing to propose a two-stage process involving a total of six doctors.

This was characterised as an “entrenched position in Fine Gael” by Labour sources, who insisted the proposed legislation was not workable. The first stage would involve an obstetrician and two psychiatrists, including a perinatal specialist.

They would have to jointly certify that in their reasonable opinion there was a real and substantial risk to the life of the pregnant woman through the threat of self destruction which could only be averted by a medical procedure.

 

Senior Ministers meet after Cabinet disagreement on abortion (Mary Minihan, Irish Times)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

Also: some neck.

Minister for Health Dr James Reilly and the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan with Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald launching a ‘shock’ anti-smoking drive this afternoon.

From tomorrow, cigarette packaging must display graphic photographs depicting the potential negitive health impacts associated with smoking.

Wait until they go after obesity.

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)