FORMER Labour junior minister Roisin Shortall said the revelation that Health Minister James Reilly added two sites in his constituency to a list of primary care centres the evening before they were announced contradicts what he told the Dail and the public.

And speaking at his party's conference in Dublin yesterday, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said the Government had sold the public a "tissue of lies" and called on Dr Reilly to resign, saying his position was "totally untenable".

Ms Shortall said all 15 locations Dr Reilly added to the controversial list of sites marked for public private partnership funding were added for "pure political patronage".

She said Dr Reilly's explanation to the Dail that his 15 additions to the list were based on a "logistical, logarithmic progression" was "absolutely codswallop".

Ms Shortall had originally complied a list of 20 locations weighed in favour of deprived areas, but Dr Reilly increased it to 33.

He then added Swords and Balbriggan from his constituency the evening before it was announced.

Freedom of Information documents released to the Irish Times show less than an hour and half before the list was announced Department of Health officials contacted the Department of Public Expenditure, informing them of even more changes.

Speaking on RTE Radio 1 yesterday afternoon, Ms Shortall said the documentation "gives the lie to the many convoluted excuses and justifications that Minister Reilly and other ministers gave in the Dail and elsewhere.

"They tried to claim there were other criteria in use, that he had some basis other than pure political patronage.

"It's obvious from the documentation produced from the Freedom of Information request – it's obvious to everybody what James Reilly was at.

"It started by assisting his colleagues and looking after his colleagues with some of those locations.

"All of the 15 would have been added on that basis but then at the last minute slipping in another four – two of which were in his own constituency."

Mr Martin said: "It reveals we were sold a tissue of lies on this issue by Minister Reilly, the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste for the last number of months.

"We were lead to believe there was some criteria behind the selection of the primary care centres that differed to Roisin Shortall's and the HSE.

"The very fact we had to wait so long by way of a Freedom of Information request is appalling.

"This was all an attempt to hide the truth. We were sold a pack of lies on this, and I am angry over this.

"He [Dr Reilly] has a lot of questions to answer and I think his position is untenable."

Sunday Independent