Ahead of the Ard Fheis this weekend, the Children’s Minister spoke to Pat Kenny about a number of issues including jobs, health and medical cards.

James Reilly gave a rundown:

On jobs:

"People talk about jobs and statistics and they move on and that's great but every single job means that's another person with more financial independence, means a better future for their family, means more children out of poverty.

"It also means people coming off the dole.

"The economy is now up and running again."

On the Ard Fheis:

"At the moment, we're in a very successful government in terms of what we have achieved for the economy and jobs.

"Our preferred outcome is to go back into government with our Labour colleagues. Our agenda is very clear."

On Health:

"I look back with mixed feelings obviously. It was at a time when we were continuing to reduce the budget but nonetheless we brought in considerable reforms.

"There are reforms ongoing and they are beginning to yield some dividend.

"Leo Varadkar has a very difficult job to do and I support him in doing that job.

On medical cards:

"Of all the the things that happened in Health, the situation around medical cards that resulted in people with disability having their cards taken off them and children was something that I found extremely difficult as a parent and as a GP.

"We put together an expert group in the hope that we could come up with the methodology around being able to accommodate those hard case decisions. The expert group said that just couldn't be done.

Until such time as we have a universal service, free GP care for all, we're not going to be able to resolve these issues. There is always going to be somebody who is just above the limit or considerably over the limit but whose circumstances and whose case touches everyone and everybody feels, look rules are rules but nobody could stand over this.

"I would love to see a situation where everybody in need of a medical card had one.

"Universal Health Insurance is not gone off the agenda."

On tobacco:

"We know that this is the last vestige of the tobacco industry in relation to promoting its product. When children see those plain boxes with those pretty graphic pictures on them, they recoil in horror." 

On Aer Lingus:

"I really have to, at the moment, decline to answer it because until the Government have laid in front of me the full arrangements that are on offer, I'm not in a position to comment"

The Eighth Amendment:

"I certainly would have liked at the time to have addressed the issue of fatal feotal anomalies but I was advised as we're still advised now that that would require a referendum.

"I think we'll have to have one in the next government and I'll be very much supporting it."