Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The advisory panels are critically important as they will allow local communities and other groups to be involved in shaping a client-centred service. Such advisory panels were recommended in the health strategy, which also recommended that they should be set up on a more structured basis.

A number of Deputies raised the issue of the membership of the board of the HSE. As the Tánaiste recently announced, the current executive chairman of the interim executive, Mr. Kevin Kelly, has been appointed as interim CEO of the executive from 1 January 2005 and until a new CEO is appointed. Consequently, Mr. Kelly will step aside as chairman of the interim executive and the Tánaiste has requested the board of the interim executive to bring forward recommendations regarding his successor. Subject to the foregoing, the existing members of the interim executive will be invited to act as appointed members of the board of the HSE.

The Tánaiste shares Deputy McManus's view that the issues of information and quality standards are critically important to these reforms. This is why the establishment of the Health Information and Quality Authority was recommended in the reform programme. If we are to have accountability in the health service, we need access to information on the standards of services provided by the executive in order to ensure that we are getting value for the large amounts of taxpayers' money invested in the health services.

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