Health Minister prepares the ground for Fine Gael u-turn on local hospital services – Browne

Fianna Fáil TD for Wexford has accused the new Minister for Health of preparing the ground for a u-turn on promises to restore local hospital services after less than one month in office.

Deputy Browne continued, “in response to parliamentary questions, Minister James Reilly refused to commit to the restoration of services to a range of local hospitals despite pledging to do so before the election. Hospitals mentioned in these questions included Wexford General.”

“As Fine Gael’s health spokesman in opposition Dr Reilly constantly talked about the need to restore services to hospitals that were being reorganised and regularly sought political advantage from the difficult decisions that had to be made. Throughout the general election campaign he, and Fine Gael candidates promised voters that if elected they would be in a position to reverse all these decisions. Now, after the votes have been cast, and after less than a month in office, the ground is being prepared for a major u-turn and an abandonment of these promises.”

Deputy Browne concluded, “I will be pressing the Fine Gael minister and his Dáil colleagues for clarity on this issue. By cynically exploiting people's fears during the election and making false promises about something as important as health, Fine Gael have engaged in the worst type of politics-as-usual and have let down the people of the north east."