James Reilly (born 16 August 1955) is an Irish former
Fine Gael
Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil à ...
politician, businessman and medical doctor
who served as a
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
from May 2016 to March 2020. He previously served as Acting
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs from February to May 2016,
Minister for Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services.
Some governments have separate ministers for mental health.
Coun ...
from March 2011 to July 2014 and
deputy leader of Fine Gael from 2010 to 2017.
He was a
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...
(TD) for the
Dublin North
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ce ...
constituency from 2007 to 2016.
He subsequently announced his retirement from politics after he lost his bid for election for his old seat at the
2020 general election.
Personal life
Reilly graduated with a medical degree from the
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland's first private university. It was established in 1784 ...
in 1979 and is a qualified
General Practitioner. Reilly was president of the
Irish Medical Organisation
The Irish Medical Organisation (Irish: ''Ceardchumann Dhochtúirà na hÉireann'' ) is a professional association for doctors in Ireland, and is also a trade union representing doctors in negotiations with the Irish government.
The IMO was form ...
prior to his election. He was appointed as party spokesperson on Health in 2007 and promoted to Deputy Leader in a reshuffle on 1 July 2010.
He has worked as a
GP in the North County Dublin area for the past 25 years, with surgeries formerly in Lusk and Donabate. Reilly currently has a surgery in Lusk.
Political career
Minister for Health: 2011–2014
For his first official trip as Health Minister, Reilly embarked on an expedition to China.
[ His second official trip was for a meeting on non-communicable diseases in New York City from 17 to 20 September 2011.]
He conceded for the first time on 17 January 2012 that budget cuts he was implementing would affect frontline health services.
His predecessor, Mary Coughlan, referred to the number of patients on trolleys as a "national emergency". Shortly before becoming Minister for Health the number of patients on trolleys reached a new record high of 569. On taking office, James Reilly vowed that "never again" would we see 569 patients on trolleys. The number of patients waiting on trolleys dipped for a time following his appointment as Minister for Health, but grew again before he left office.
Reilly instructed his department to start collating an outpatient waiting list for the first time, which, when it was first published in March 2013 showed over 100,000 patients waiting over a year. Thousands of them were waiting over four years. By December 2013, this waiting list had been reduced by 95 percent. The number of patients waiting over 8 months for an inpatient or daycase procedure has now been reduced by 99%.
In July 2012, Reilly was named on a debt defaulters' list as owing a debt of €1.9 million together with four others on foot of a judgment which had been registered in the High Court. The dispute was eventually settled with the nursing home at the centre of the dispute sold.
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtà Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...
and Sinn FĂ©in
Sinn FĂ©in ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn FĂ©in organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
tabled a motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in Reilly on 3 September 2012 after more cuts in the health service.
He says the search for savings would focus on tackling "inefficiencies and waste", such as excessive sick leave and overtime. The Labour junior minister RĂłisĂn Shortall
RĂłisĂn Shortall (born 25 April 1954) is an Irish Social Democrats politician who has been joint leader of the Social Democrats since June 2015. She has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency since 1992. She previousl ...
addressed the Dáil during this motion and did not indicate her support for him or mention his name once, though she did not vote against the motion. Reilly won the vote of no confidence by 99 to 49. On 26 September 2012, Shortall resigned as Minister of State for Primary Care and her party whip, citing lack of support and the lack of an explanation from Reilly as to what criteria were used to select an extra 15 sites for primary care centres, including the placement of two such centres in Reilly's own constituency.
Just two weeks after the motion of no confidence, Reilly unilaterally cut Irish consultants salary. Compared to salaries from 2008, the cut represents over a 40% drop, the largest cut in the public sector. Controversially, this salary cut applied to not only new consultant contracts but also to existing consultants who moved to take up a similar position in a different hospital. Since this pay cut there has been difficulty in recruiting consultants with several posts receiving no applicants. While under questions from the Oireachtas, Minister Reilly downplayed the recruitment problems and stated "there is not the great crisis chaos that the Irish Hospital Consultants Association would like to paint". Two days following this the Minister stated "it was never my intention that somebody who has spent 10 years working as a cardiologist...would be expected to return here and commence work at the starting point on the salary scale, that, clearly, does not make sense".
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs: 2014–2016
Reilly was moved to the position of Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in a cabinet reshuffle in July 2014. He retained responsibility for Public Health and anti-smoking policy.
In this role he faced controversy over the Catholic church's constitutional right to give preference in admission at church controlled schools to baptized Catholic children. Virtually all of Ireland's state-funded primary schools (97%) are under church control. Irish law allows schools under church control to consider religion the main factor in admissions. Oversubscribed schools often choose to admit Catholics over non-Catholics, a situation that has created difficulty for non-Catholic families. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva asked Reilly to explain the continuation of preferential access to state-funded schools on the basis of religion. He said that the laws probably needed to change, but noted it may take a referendum because the Irish constitution gives protections to religious institutions. The issue is most problematic in the Dublin area. A petition initiated by a Dublin attorney, Paddy Monahan, received almost 20,000 signatures in favor of overturning the preference given to Catholic children. An advocacy group, Education Equality, planned a legal challenge.
Reilly lost his seat at the 2016 general election.[ He retained his position as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs until talks on government formation had concluded and his successor, ]Katherine Zappone
Katherine Zappone (; born 25 November 1953) is an American-Irish independent politician who served as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs from May 2016 to June 2020. She was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-West constituency from ...
, was appointed. He was the Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the 25th Seanad.
Abortion
At a meeting of Fine Gael ministers in November 2015, James Reilly reportedly 'faced down' then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...
, demanding a referendum on Ireland's abortion laws. He reportedly told the Taoiseach repeatedly: "I said it, I believe it and I'll say it again." He took a swipe again at the Taoiseach when he told a group of young voters to "never stand back because others try to shut you down".
Kenny's Fine Gael-led minority government took office after the 2016 election with a programme which promised a randomly selected Citizens' Assembly
A citizens' assembly (also known as citizens' jury or citizens' panel or people's jury or policy jury or citizens' initiative review or consensus conference or citizens' convention) is a body formed from randomly selected citizens to delibera ...
to report on possible changes to the Eighth Amendment, which would be considered by an Oireachtas committee, to whose report the government would respond officially in debates in both houses of the Oireachtas. Leo Varadkar
Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...
replaced Enda Kenny as Taoiseach on 14 June 2017 and promised to hold a referendum on abortion in 2018.
Smoking
Reilly has called the tobacco industry
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...
“evil
Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
”, claimed that they “target our children” and declared “war” on them. Both his father and brother died from smoking related illnesses. He received cabinet approval to aim to make Ireland a tobacco free country – defined as a smoking rate below 5% - by 2025. Ireland became the second country in the world to commit to introducing plain tobacco packaging
Plain tobacco packaging, also known as generic, neutral, standardised or homogeneous packaging, is packaging of tobacco products, typically cigarettes, without any branding (colours, imagery, corporate logos and trademarks), including only the br ...
. He has taken a defiant attitude to threats of legal action from the tobacco industry. During the Irish Presidency of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, Reilly prioritised the Tobacco Products Directive. He secured the agreement of the European Council
The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...
within just six months. Health Commissioner
Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environment ...
Tonio Borg
Tonio Borg (born 12 May 1957) is a conservative Maltese politician who served as the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy replacing John Dalli as member of the College of the European Commission in the second Barroso Commission.
...
praised his ability in securing this agreement. When the Tobacco Directive's future became doubtful because of tobacco industry lobbying in the European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, Reilly arranged for letters supporting the directive to be sent to MEPs from himself, the Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
, 16 European Health ministers and the World Health Organisation. In an unusual move in Irish politics, Reilly accepted a Bill proposed by independent Senators which aims to ban smoking in cars where children are present.
Retirement
He unsuccessfully contested the Dublin Fingal by-election in November 2019, but was eliminated before the final count, and was not elected. He stood again for Fine Gael in Dublin Fingal at the 2020 general election and was defeated again, winning only 5.2% of the first-preference votes. Shortly after his third defeat, Reilly announced his retirement from politics.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reilly, James
1955 births
Living people
Alumni of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Fine Gael TDs
Members of the 30th Dáil
Members of the 31st Dáil
Members of the 25th Seanad
Ministers for Health (Ireland)
Politicians from Fingal
20th-century Irish medical doctors
21st-century Irish medical doctors
Irish general practitioners
Nominated members of Seanad Éireann
Fine Gael senators