Mr. John Connaghan:

There are three things, some of which I referenced as part of my closing remarks. I would like to restore confidence in the cervical smear process and our ability to furnish the committee and to get the right people in front of it that it wants to see. Those are my immediate priorities. In terms of mid-term priorities, implementation of the Sláintecare report will figure quite highly. I can see many benefits in it. I come from a system which has geo-aligned health authorities with funding provided on a weighted capitation basis and devolved authority to a lower level. I think that is good because with devolved authority comes more power but also more responsibility. That is good and we should do it.

I have a particular interest in encouraging the growth of clinical directorates at local level, both in hospitals and community healthcare organisations. That is where decision making and power are moved nearer to the front line by investing clinicians with a degree of budget responsibility. I am a particular fan of it and have operated it very successfully in other jurisdictions.

Another objective of mine is to ensure the values we must observe in terms of the principles of public life - transparency, openness and personal and organisational accountability - are also quite up on my agenda. Last but not least, one of the interests I had in applying for the job of deputy director general of operations was related to trying to improve the performance of the health system in Ireland, from elective, emergency and scheduled care points of view and to transform what we were doing in changing the model of care to a better one.