Border crossing no child’s play for dicey Reilly

After months in political free fall, hapless Health Minister James Reilly narrowly missed hitting bottom when he tumbled while attempting to navigate a children’s playground.

A floor-level bridge sent the minister spinning out of control as worryingly as his health budget, but Reilly just about managed not to land on his backside.

Branded a political stroke specialist by opponents, it was a stroke of bad luck — and bad balance — that sent Reilly spinning off an object most five-year-olds treat as child’s play.

Reilly’s discomfort was made more acute by the fact his Northern opposite number Edwin Poots eased across the activity bridge during a visit to the playground of the Children’s Centre of the South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.

Unfortunately, Reilly is no stranger to public embarrassment, after a string of damaging U-turns was recently capped by the troika insisting he sends them monthly updates on his department’s massive overspend so that they can effectively mark his maths homework every few weeks.

But then numbers have never been the minister’s strong point after becoming the first sitting Cabinet member to be named in debtor’s shame sheet The Stubbs Gazette after failing to comply with a ruling of the High Court.

One of Dr Reilly’s recent brushes with notoriety saw him locked inside a lift with his Labour junior health minister Kathleen Lynch for 20 minutes, with both emerging gasping for air.

The undignified playground incident also once again proved how Northern health chiefs continue to outperform their Southern counterparts. But at least if Reilly had really hurt himself he was safely across the border and knew he would not have to slum it on a hospital corridor trolley for hours awaiting treatment as patients in the Republic are still expected to.

Reilly has once again demonstrated he deploys dangerous footwork for a man teetering on a political tightrope.