FG seeking 'at least' 70 seats in next election

FINE GAEL is aiming for at least 70 TDs, with 20 in Dublin, in the next general election, new deputy leader Dr James Reilly has said.

The party’s health spokesman and TD for Dublin North said he detected no disgruntlement among long-serving Fine Gael TDs when he became deputy leader after just three years in the Dáil, following the failed heave against party leader Enda Kenny.

“I certainly haven’t felt it. I’ve had no ill will. Now maybe the skin has got so thick I don’t feel it, but I don’t think so. I think there’ll be disgruntlement and ill will if we don’t perform and get the additional seats we should get in Dublin.” In a wide-ranging interview with The Irish Times, Dr Reilly said he saw it as his “duty” as deputy leader and a Dublin-based TD to devote his energy to “raise our game” in the capital ahead of the next general election.

“Don’t forget there was only three TDs in Dublin when Enda took over in 2002. He’s built that to 10. It’s our job to double that. That’s the aim.”

As for the overall target for the country, he said Fine Gael was aiming for an increase well above its 51 seats. “We want to see ourselves up above the 70 mark the next time. Who knows? I’m not setting our limit on 70 at all. We’re going to work to be the biggest party in the next government and possibly be a single party.”

After the reshuffle “the vast bulk of people have settled down”, he said, and Fine Gael’s economics team is “new and improved”.

Asked how far his ambitions extended, he replied: “To be the next minister for health and to be remembered as the minister who transformed the health service to the benefit of everybody, making it a safe place to be treated and a preferred employer.”

It would take two terms to deliver Fine Gael’s FairCare policy, which it was costing “in a more precise manner”, he said.

He said he thought Labour, Fine Gael’s potential coalition partners, would be “100 per cent” behind the plan. “The only issue between us would be that we want multiple insurers, they want a single State insurer.”

Asked had he teased it out with them, he replied: “Not at all. We’re two separate parties.”

A former president of the Irish Medical Association, he said his experience helped him progress in Leinster House. “The knives of politics are very sharp, but they’re no sharper than the scalpels of medical politics.”

He said he did not worry about pressure from vested interests if he became minister for health. “I believe in compromise, conciliation, consultation, but I won’t shirk from confrontation if that’s all that’s left.”

Dr Reilly said he was approached “in a half-hearted sense” in the past by Fianna Fáil and Labour, as well as Fine Gael. He did not think the approaches were serious and family commitments meant the time was not right to enter politics.

“I’d five children. They’re all grown-up now, so. I’m especially proud of . . . well I’m proud of them all.”

Dr Reilly became emotional and stopped the interview for a moment before continuing: “One of my children has a serious problem, he’s autistic . . . He didn’t speak until he was five. We were told he was mentally handicapped. I’ll always remember the report, which we still have, his mother was advised to be of good cheer.”

He was later diagnosed with autism. “It was a hard struggle,” he said. However, “today he’s into the last year of an honours degree at a third-level institution. So, for obvious reasons, it wouldn’t have been terribly practical for me to go into politics before now.”