*Minister Simon Harris. Photograph: Arthur Ellis
VIEWED AS A CONTENDER for the leadership of Fine Gael, Simon Harris (FG) has said An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (FG) will be leading the party into the next General Election and that he has his support.
Five sitting Fine Gael TDs have announced they will not be contesting the next General Election. It is put to the Minister for Higher Education, Harris by The Clare Echo that he could be the leader of a new-look Fine Gael following this election.
Harris responded, “A number of people who have decided not to run have been around for a very long time in politics and have given many years, I think of my good friend David Stanton in Cork-East who has been a TD for 26 years, his home is about four hours from the Dáil and he has made his decision, he has made a really good contribution. Lots of people do these things for different reasons, more and more you will see people come into politics for a period of time and perhaps not as long a period of time as you are used to, politics is faster paced than what is used to be.
“We have an excellent team here in Fine Gael, we have my good friend Deputy Joe Carey and Senator Martin Conway, we have a number of really good councillors who will all be working hard in the run-up to the local elections and I look forward to supporting them, other issues don’t arise at the minute”.
Current polls place Fine Gael at 18 percent which is behind Fianna Fáil and further adrift from Sinn Féin. It won’t cause any heave against the Taoiseach, Minister Harris said. “It’s a disappointing poll, this time last year there was a similar poll with a similar figure but we bounced back and gained some ground back, the leadership of Fine Gael is a settled question, Leo Varadkar is our leader and will be into the next election and I’m fully working with him, he is doing a good job as Taoiseach. A lot of people want to see us deliver on some key issues, a lot of people who vote for Fine Gael or might think about it do want to see us getting back to those core issues. The cost of living crisis is very real for everybody including working people and working families, we need to look to do more to support them in the next Budget”.
A former Minister for Health, Harris outlined that no current member of Government would accept that overcrowding in the Mid-West region was acceptable. “It’s so important with what Minister Donnelly is doing on speeding up the expansion of Limerick is supported, I remember when I was Minister for Health we had the commencement of the new 96 bed block, that has been followed with another expansionary facility, there has also been changes with regards to Ennis Hospital and I know the people of Clare feel very strongly on the protocol of going to Limerick for things which could be done in Clare. Nobody in Government will suggest the overcrowding in Limerick is acceptable, we have a job to do in terms of expanding capacity, we’re doing that and at a pace and rate which hasn’t been seen before, at the same time that the facilities are managed well and that the people of the Mid-West see a return on their investment for shorter waiting times for people and that has to be focused”.
“There is a real fast-track on the capital development, the 96 bed block was brought forward but now they are pushing on to do even more, it will be interesting to see how the protocol changes for Ennis and other small hospitals, is there potential to do more, I know it is something Government will be thinking of in their review, we won’t be found wanting in terms of capital development. I kicked off the expansion of Limerick when I was in the Department of Health, I recognise fully that the people of the Mid-West are being served by a health service which simply isn’t large enough for its population, they were promised when reconfiguration happened many years ago lots of extra beds in Limerick, those extra beds are going in now in real time and our job as a Government is to really keep the pressure on to ensure they are delivered as quick as possible”.
People of the Mid-West are now getting the beds they were owed, Minister Harris maintained. “The frustration that people have experienced with the health service is the length of time it takes to deliver capital projects. In fairness to my colleague Minister Donnelly, he has taken steps to accelerate the delivery of those extra beds in Limerick, what happened many years ago in terms of reconfiguration and being promised extra beds but reconfiguration happened and people were left waiting for bed capacity. What we’ve been trying to do as a Government and I started it in the Department of Health was to deliver the beds owed to the people in the Mid-West”.
