Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some in government might seek to portray the reason for the resignation of Deputy Róisín Shortall as Minister of State at the Department of Health as a personality clash with the Minister, Deputy James Reilly. Nothing could be further from the truth. In a devastating critique of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and the entire Government, Deputy Shortall resigned over what she described as a lack of support for the reforms in the programme for Government and the values that underpin it. As Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, was forced to articulate in public her frustration at the failure to prioritise the extension of free GP care and the lack of transparency in the selection criteria used for locating new primary care centres. The tipping point came when the Minister, Deputy Reilly, discarded the established criteria for locating new primary care centres and failed to explain why two centres in his constituency jumped the queue ahead of everybody else. The harsh truth is that the Labour Party abandoned Deputy Shortall when she was crying out for support to have the programme for Government implemented in a fair way.

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