James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The effect of Deputy Ó Caoláin's amendment would mean there would be no requirement that members of the directorate must be drawn from employees and senior management positions in the HSE. As the directorate is to be the new governing structure of the HSE it is essential that its members come from senior management in the executive. I should also clarify that it was not the intention that appointed directors be drawn only from current HSE employees. In other words the intention was that appointed directors be drawn from HSE employees irrespective of when the person may have been appointed to the grade. Therefore, I do not propose to accept amendment No. 4.

Deputies will be aware from my amendments that I am no longer proposing that membership of the directorate should be limited only to persons holding the grade of national director. In this regard amendment No. 5 deals with eligibility for appointments to the directorate. The Bill currently provides that appointed directors must be HSE employees holding the grade of national director. However, as I signalled on Second Stage, in light of the approval of some new necessary top management positions covering issues other than service areas I believe that eligibility for membership of the directorate should be widened to give a greater degree of flexibility in determining the ideal composition of the directorate and enable other relevant employees as well as employees in charge of service areas to be part of the governing body of the HSE. Specifically, the amendment provides that appointed directors must be employees holding the grade of national director or another grade not less than the grade of national director.

I wish to inform the committee of a potential amendment relating to directorate membership on Report Stage to which I alluded earlier. Amendment No. 5, which I have just outlined, widens eligibility for membership of the directorate to allow senior employees in addition to national directors to be members of the directorate. Under the Bill, however, the maximum number of directors of the directorate, including the director general, is seven. However, under the Health Act 2004 the number of board members was 12. I am still in favour of a tight ship when it comes to the directors but I believe there is scope for a slight increase in the total number of directorate members. I believe this will allow relevant service heads and a small number of other key senior employees to form the governing body of the HSE. Accordingly, and subject to legal advice, I will be bringing an appropriate amendment on Report Stage. However, I wish to assure the committee that there will be no additional costs associated with this amendment.

Amendment No. 7 is consequential on amendment No. 5. Amendment No. 14 is to ensure the Minister can appoint an appointed director's second-in-command to act as a temporary member of the directorate during an extended absence, for example, through illness, of the appointed director. Section 16L(2) currently allows the Minister to appoint a HSE employee to the directorate where, by reason of an extended absence by an appointed director, there is not in the opinion of the Minister a sufficient number of appointed directors of the directorate available to enable the directorate to perform its functions effectively. However the Bill provides that only employees in the grade of national director or, with the amendment recently discussed, another no-less-senior grade are eligible to serve on the directorate. Should there be an extended absence of an appointed director, amendment No. 14 will allow another HSE employee to temporarily replace the appointed director on the directorate, the governing body, even though that employee may not be a national director or a person holding an equivalent grade. This flows from a common sense approach to management and the need to consider practical situations that might arise. My amendments, if accepted, will have no financial implications.