Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

As Deputy Reilly has acknowledged, the report draws a number of conclusions. First, on the formation and governance of the hospital, there are lessons we need to learn when we are bringing hospitals together. The Tallaght model is not the way to do it. While I understand it happened in the way it did for ethos and other reasons at the time, the hospital, from a board structure, remained an amalgamation of three different foundations coming from the Adelaide, the children's hospital and the Meath.

I have had discussions with the chairman of the board on many occasions. On Tuesday last he came to see me as a result of the Hayes report. The board of Tallaght Hospital has put a smaller board in place which, effectively, will be a management board. It is a sub-group of the current board and it is a smaller group. It has also appointed Mr. William McKee, who managed health services in Northern Ireland and has a terrific track record, and he is working with the current acting CEO of Tallaght Hospital on the management issues that have arisen in the context of the Hayes report and, indeed, the PricewaterhouseCoopers report. Mr. McKee is also a member of the board of the hospital.

Tallaght Hospital, in the almost 11 years of its existence, has virtually doubled in staffing size. As they expanded the number of consultants, they did not have a corresponding increase in the diagnostic staffing, including radiologists. Certainly, lessons must be learnt from that.

The two consultants are currently being recruited. I understand the hope is that they will be in place in the early part of next year.

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