Reilly in hot water over hospital upgrade order

Health Minister James Reilly was embroiled in fresh controversy after it emerged that a hospital modernisation he ordered to be “accelerated” in a senior Cabinet colleague’s constituency was not an HSE priority.

The upgrading of the medical facility in Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin’s Wexford base was not a key development in the HSE Capital Plan, freedom of information documents show.

Internal health department letters show that upgrades to Wexford General Hospital’s emergency department was branded “not a priority” after receiving limited design funding up to April 2011.