Sir, – Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore both expressed disappointment at Róisín Shortall’s resignation (Home News, September 27th). Does this mean that both or either of them have mixed feelings of distress, vexation, failure, defeat, disaster, calamity, anticlimax and frustration arising from her decision? I’m disenchanted that it was Ms Shortall and not Dr James Reilly who resigned. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – On the one hand we have a Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, who has recently had his name published in Stubbs Gazette – a first for any sitting TD in the history of the Dáil. He recently took a decision that one senior member of his own party described as looking like “stroke politics” – where he interfered with a clear and open selection process and inserted his own primary care sites, for reasons he has yet to explain to us.
On the other hand, we have a Minister of State, Róisín Shortall, who has tried her absolute best to progress the primary care agenda, as per the Government’s own promise. A junior minister who followed a clear and open selection process for primary care sites, driven by criteria which were based on medical need and areas of medical deprivation. A junior minister who put all her effort into her job, and doing it right, and calling things how she saw them.
Events come to a head, one has to go. And who goes? The one who has followed the book – the one who has been open, clear and honest with the people.
I’m at a complete loss. No matter what way I look at this, I cannot understand a system that rewards those who carry on the old, pot-hole fixing, style of politics, while at the same time seems to have no place for the kind of politician we are all crying out for – one who puts national needs before constituency needs. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It beggars belief that the Labour Party and Fine Gael couldn’t see the writing on the wall!
I am so angry, because Róisín Shortall was always one of the few politicians who kept the most vulnerable to the forefront when making policy decisions and in this Government, she was achieving the position of being able to see those decisions through.
Shame on those who didn’t come out publicly and support her. Shame on Fine Gael, which didn’t bite the bullet on the advertising of alcohol. Shame on her colleagues in the Labour Party. Shame! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Shortall, not for the long-haul. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Coalition’s unseemly goosestepping behind the unacceptable has at last been stayed, however temporarily, by Róisín Shortall. Some little cheer for those of us who thought we had finally dumped Fianna Fáil only to find it being resurrected in wolfish clothing. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Once again we see a politician make a decision based on his own criteria. Minister for Health James Reilly’s addition of two locations in his constituency to a priority list for primary care centres reflects the lack of openness and transparency that has plagued this administration.
The courage and leadership shown by Róisín Shortall is to be applauded in a Government that continues to fail to deliver the promised “New Politics” for which this country gave it a mandate in February 2011. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Honesty and principled behaviour in Irish politics! No wonder the Government and media didn’t see it coming. We can only hope that Róisín Shortall’s behaviour is catching. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – So a senior minister and a junior minister have differences and a junior minister resigns. Politicians, eh? Big egos in thin skin. Most of us in our working lives have to deal with difficult colleagues, we may even have flaming rows from time to time. But we turn up for work the next day and get on with the job. Most of us don’t have a gallery to play to.
So will we ever really know what went on? Probably not. But the politicians should remember that, as voters we can be like a rugby referee looking at two front row forwards after a collapsed scrum and say to both parties, “I don’t know what went on there, but any more of that and you both go to the sideline. Captains, talk to your players and sort it out.”
Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore, sort out your teams. If that means reining in the maverick, do it; if it means cajoling the slighted, do it. Remember you don’t have to like the people you work with, you just have to work with them. It’s what being professional is about. – Yours, etc,