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HEALTH MINISTER James Reilly showed little sign of disappointment in the registration his Labour junior minister Róisín Shortall – telling a group at a constituency event: “Pressure’s only for tyres.”
Speaking at an event in Balbriggan last night, within hours of Shortall’s resignation being announced, Reilly remained defiant over his handling of the controversy surrounding the allocation of primary care centres – a dispute which appeared to have been the last straw for Shortall.
“There’s been a lot of controversy recently around certain issues in the public domain … but I’m pleased that Balbriggan is going to get a primary care centre,” Reilly said.
At the opening of the Fumbally Exchange office premises, Reilly commented that the best tactic for Ireland to emerge from its current difficulties was to build a sense of community.
“It’s all about supporting each other, learning from each other,” Reilly commented, before referencing the old Irish proverb, ní neart go cur le chéile ['there is no strength without unity'].
The minister, whose Dublin North constituency includes Balbriggan, said he had “absolutely no hesitation” in saying he would be as supportive as possible to the people of that town.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie as he left the event, Reilly conceded that he had not been given advance warning of Shortall’s intention to quit.
Meanwhile Labour chairman Colm Keaveney said Shortall had been given the full support of the Labour Party executive – including the party leader Eamon Gilmore – in recent days.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Late Debate last night, Keaveney said he had witnessed Gilmore’s “categoric support for Róísín Shortall on Saturday afternoon”.
The party leader had proposed a motion of support for Shortall at a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party on Tuesday, and at meetings of both the party executive and the party central council – which features delegates from every Dáil constituency – on Saturday.
“That’s the most important audience, with respect to the business of the Labour Party,” he said, saying he was “angry at the system” that it had forced Shortall’s departure.
Asked whether it should have been Reilly that resigned and not Shortall, Keaveney asserted: “We have voted confidence in James Reilly in the recent past.”
- Additional reporting by Paul Hyland
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As usual trying to put a good spin on Ireland’s figures. Most of our improvement is due to “scambridge” hiring interns.
Most countries have internships. My friend is doing one in London.
And most of Germanys low figure is accountable due to the fact that they don’t have a minimum hourly wage – I’m not sure if it is the same in Austria. This means people can be working, legally, for nothing. Just another way that a government is trying to hide it’s unemployment rate.
Although, some quick googling to fact check shows that Germany have actually agreed to introduce a minimum wage by next year – Let’s see if they keep the same low unemployment levels with that.
Bobby, the difference between an internship and the ‘job’bridge interns is that any employer can hire as many job bridge interns as they want, pay them nothing, and then let them go after the time, and then just hire another poor soul to do the exact same job. No promise to keep them on, and in a lot of cases you see, no real value to the internships offered (stacking shelves, washing cars etc.).
Exactly, it’s mostly completely taken advantage of.
It is a crap system, but it’s the same in England, graduates doing interns stacking shelves. Recently a graduate was sent to work in a pound shop by the jobcentre to stack shelves. She took them to court and won?
So just because they are taking complete advantage of young unemployed people in Britain, it’s grand that we’re doing the same here?
Nope, I never said that, just letting you know you’re not alone.
Ah sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you were just trying to justify the system because it happens elsewhere.
Actually, I believe Germany has just introduced a minimum wage (€8.50) in the last few weeks.
White Fang, yes I know and linked to an article about it (as it was news to me until I looked it up) in my post above.
Maybe people should look up the definition of internships. Then compare them to what happens on the jobsbridge scam!
Sorry Dave, I completely missed that!
@alan Most of our improvement is due to high end IT, Pharma and Finance jobs. Basic maths kiddo (which ironically is the reason you wouldn’t get a job in any of those sectors.)
Every job in FAS/Solas is for this scam, and scam it is when local auctioneers & solicitors advertising for staff promising a good internship, funded by money stolen from private pension accounts, most vile Government in the history of the state.l
@Bobby
I don’t know if it’s the same story, but I read about a woman with a history degree who was serving as a volunteer intern in a museum.
But her local job centre told her she couldn’t volunteer as that meant she wasn’t “available for work”. They then promptly put her to work in Dealz. And she would lose her dole payment if she refused to take the “job”. So she ended up working a 40 hour week against her will for approx £70.
Dealz wins. Job centre wins. Everyone but the poor woman who was working towards a more permanent placement in the museum wins.
Thanks for that Tom.
The BBC said last week, 26 million people unemployed in the EU
Bobby what possible reason could Eurostat have for manipulation of the true figures.
26 million unemployed in the EU, 18 million in the Eurozone.
Does anybody have an accurate figure as to what our unemployment rate would look like without the old immigration release valve? I imagine we’d be looking at close to the same rate as Greece. We sure are lucky that we speak English and can ship out all those workers for whom there are no jobs.
18 million jobless in the EU and still hundreds of thousands on non EU migrants are allowed enter Europe looking for work every year…madness
I’d love to know out of that 18.9 million how many are people that never want to work . Freeloaders if you will.
With any luck Gilmore will be out of a job soon.
Going by some of the regular trolls….probably 18 million or so..sure who,d want to work when you can live in luxury on the scratcher..and the sort of tripe these idiots post.
The people out of work need help people like you gay only make the situation worse !!
Who are the freeloaders to which you refer? Politicans such as our own, spineless lot? or people in long term unemployment on benefits who require said benefits to survive? We know who gets the blame these days and its the latter.
Yes its so much fun been on the dole and trying to scrape by on 100euro a week…madness!.and you have the cheek to call us all freeloaders?.funnily enough most of us would rather be working and earning some sort of living for ourselves as opposed to living on peanuts!.
well said Denise. the contempt is disgraceful
Thank you Sean, I just get tired of hearing how we are all lazy so-and-so’s when its not the case at all…i got laid off a couple of weeks back simply because there wasnt enough work and have had no luck with finding another job
At 5000 jobs a month Happy Gilmore will have it sorted in 300 years. On a side note… That labour, 70000 jobs ad (blatant lie) at the bottom is making me sick.
I am glad to see those good for nothing screw balls in Leinster house got them self A3Job .
have your say