Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

It would not have been possible for any individual, no matter how extraordinary, to have sat down in any office and decided, when more than 50 organisations, including 11 health boards, were being brought together, which staff would be necessary to retain and which would not. It was known that the chief executive officers of the former health boards, since their roles were being abolished, would no longer be in position. Therefore, there was a redundancy plan for them. After that, it was important to establish the unified organisation and to assign it, under its new chief executive officer, Professor Drumm, and his team of managers, the responsibility to decide which personnel were required at the various levels and to learn from experience in this regard.

The recommendation in the reform analysis that was done, before I became Minister for Health and Children, was that there should be two pillars. However, my own experience and that of the management team is that this is not a good idea. We need integration between hospital and community rather than separate pillars with separate budgets. Yet the advice given to the Government in advance of the establishment of the HSE was that the model that was put in place was appropriate. Professor Drumm has been in office for three years. He is the appropriate person, together with his new human relations director and the other staff at his disposal and on the basis of the external advice he has availed of from individuals and organisations with expertise in this area, to decide, in accordance with the process the Minister for Finance will put in place, on the level of redundancy in the organisation in 2009 and onwards.

See this speech in context