Reilly pleads with Fine Gael TDs to support €700m cuts in healthcare

Embattled Health Minister James Reilly has written to Fine Gael TDs in a bid to steel them for the €700m of health service cuts planned in the budget.

In the letter, Dr Reilly acknowledges there will be “tight political and media scrutiny” ahead but seeks to reassure TDs that he will put “patients first” and “reductions in services last”.

He urges TDs to ignore the “opposition voices predicting calamity and catastrophe in the health services” that they will hear in the coming weeks.