OPINION:Reilly is likely to survive as Minister, underscoring the Dáil belief that the best way to deal with political embarrassment is to tough it out, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
IT APPEARS that James Reilly will survive as Minister for Health despite the humiliation of being publicly exposed as a debt defaulter, but the episode has done nothing to restore the tarnished reputation of Irish politics.
Whatever the legal intricacies designed to keep the wealthy Minister’s business dealings at arms length, the fact remains that for the first time in the history of the State, a High Court judgment for debt has been registered against a member of the Cabinet.
If something similar happened in Britain, the minister involved would almost certainly resign as a matter of honour, if for no other reason than to limit the political damage to his colleagues, but that is not the way politics is conducted in this country.
Coming hot on the heels of the Mick Wallace affair, it seems that in the Dáil right, left and centre is united in the belief that the best way to deal with political embarrassment is to tough it out.
The focus on whether Reilly has a conflict of interest in regard to nursing homes, in the light of his business interest in the sector, is only one aspect of the issue. The core of it is that politicians and, more particularly, senior Ministers are supposed to set an example and be above suspicion.
The nub of the issue is that a High Court judgment for debt to the tune of €1.9 million has been registered against a serving Minister. If that is regarded as politically acceptable then all the Coalition’s talk about restoring the reputation of politics should be taken with a grain of salt.
One of the bizarre aspects of the controversy is that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had no warning that his deputy leader’s name was going to appear in Stubbs Gazette on Tuesday morning. When it broke, the news came as a shock to all of Reilly’s Cabinet colleagues.
The Minister says he only became aware of it himself on Monday night when he was on an official trip to Cyprus. Given that the High Court case about the issue took place months ago, he should have been aware that something was coming down the tracks.
The Opposition parties have been quite restrained in their criticism of the Minister; far more restrained than he would be if the boot was on the other foot. The sustained and vituperative criticism he directed at Mary Harney when he was Fine Gael spokesman on health was one of the features of the last Dáil.
While Fianna Fáil raised questions about the Minister on Wednesday when news of the court judgment broke, the party made no attempt to go in for the kill and instead moved away from the issue in the Dáil yesterday, following the Minister’s explanation to the House the previous night.
Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Jonathan O’Brien continued yesterday to raise valid questions about Reilly’s suitability for office, saying he had not dispelled concerns about his conflict of interest in having an interest in a nursing home property while “presiding over hundreds of bed closures in the public nursing sector”.
The Sinn Féin TD also raised concerns about the fact that Reilly “has given no indication as to when he will comply with the High Court order” for the repayment of €1.9 million to other investors in the property at Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, where the nursing home site is located.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, who was handling business for the Government, rallied to the Minister’s defence. “I have confidence in the Minister for Health as I do in all of the Ministers who serve in this Government,” he told O’Brien.
Gilmore said the Minister made a statement and he accepted that statement. He said there were procedures for members of the House having private business interests and a requirement that they do not take an active involvement in that business. He could hardly have said otherwise unless he wanted to destabilise the Coalition, but privately, other Labour Ministers have expressed concern at the damage the controversy could do to the Government and they are not convinced they have heard the last of it.
Fine Gael TDs and Ministers were more vocal in their defence of Reilly. Kenny insisted that it was preposterous to suggest that his Minister for Health might have a conflict of interest. A number of Fine Gael TDs also came to Reilly’s defence, but it was possible to detect a level of nervousness about where the controversy might lead.
It also raises questions about the appropriateness of Reilly’s appointment as Minister for Health in the first place once he declared an interest in the Greenhill Nursing Home, the investment vehicle that has landed him and four others with a €1.9 million debt.
In his declaration of interests to the Dáil, Reilly stated that the “interest was transferred to a blind trust” as per the advice of the Standards in Public Office Commission. In practice, he gave power of attorney in relation to his interest in the nursing home to his solicitor, who in turn transferred that power to another attorney.
The Minister has responded to the conflict of interest charge by pointing out that the thrust of his policy has been to move people from all nursing homes back to home settings; and he is shortly to unveil a policy with a budget of €28 million to give effect to it.
How he intends to deal with his own budgetary problems is something that his colleagues in Government will be watching anxiously. If he doesn’t deal with them they might not be as tolerant next time around.
Stephen Collins is political editor