Reilly urged to answer questions on home staffing
It emerged yesterday that Dr Reilly had intervened in a 2002 staffing issue at the nursing home at the centre of the €1.9m judgment against him and four fellow investors.
In a personal statement to the Dáil on Wednesday night, the health minister said that while he was a co-owner of the Greenhill nursing home in Co Tipperary, he had no role in its day-to-day activities as it was leased to an independent operator.
He insisted he had no conflict of interest: “I am not the operator of the Greenhill nursing home. I never have been. That business is run independently.”
But the Evening Herald reported yesterday that in 2002, Dr Reilly phoned an official from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in a bid to stop three nurses based at the home from being moved to a public hospital.
According to the INMO official, Dr Reilly asked how the home would replace the nurses if they were moved.
Fianna Fáil claimed the revelations “cast doubt” on the accuracy of Dr Reilly’s statement to the Dáil.
Party health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the minister must answer questions: “This new revelation that Minister Reilly intervened in a staffing issue directly contradicts his statement that he has never been involved in the management of his private nursing home and that it has always been independently run.”
A spokesman for the minister said he was a senior figure within the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents doctors, at the time of the 2002 call.
The spokesman said it was “not uncommon” for the IMO and INMO to be in contact on industrial relations matters. He said the phonecall “in no way takes away” from the minister’s claim that the nursing home was independently run.
The spokesman also said Dr Reilly had not been a politician in 2002.
Fine Gael’s Simon Harris said: “This latest move by Fianna Fáil is just another cheap shot at the minister.”
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