Dr. Ambrose McLoughlin:

The establishment of the Government's forum is an important response by the Department and the Minister. We do need good governance across the whole sector. We need to get best practice into every agency across the sector. The forum will develop a work programme to assist everybody in the section 38 and 39 sectors, as well as the wider HSE sector.

We face some challenges. We need to prioritise governance; I agree with the Deputy very much in that regard. We need guidelines on what makes for an effective board. We need to be clear that boards can contribute to improving the quality of services in their institutions. We must ensure that boards hold their executive teams to account, and we need to strike a balance between the board's maintaining its independence and complying with best practice as laid out by the Department of Health. This is an area that we have been following vigorously in the Department.

I would encourage every agency to have an independent governance audit carried out every year to satisfy everybody that they are in compliance with evidence-based best practice and governance. This is an issue and a challenge for a lot of agencies across the world. There are volumes in the literature about this. The new hospital groupings, the new structures we will put in place for community health, and the whole reform programme are driving forward this governance agenda. Ministers in my Department are keen to ensure that there is a regular and systematic audit of performance from now on. I want to give the committee the maximum level of reassurance and respond positively to the Deputy's questions.