Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise an issue that I am surprised did not get more attention and about which more concern was not expressed, namely the recent departure of Ms Anne O'Connor, the chief operations officer from the HSE to take up a post with a private health insurance company, VHI. There has been a lot of talk about the need to have some sort of cooling off period between going from very senior positions in the public service to private companies when there is potentially a conflict of interest. VHI's job is to make money out of healthcare whereas this Government and the State is supposed to be committed to a single tier, public health service under Sláintecare and yet there is a revolving door through which the chief operations officer of the HSE goes straight into a private health insurance company. That is just not on. We need public sector reform so that there is a significant cooling off period for very senior staff, like the chief operations officer of the HSE, who have access to a lot information which could potentially be beneficial to a private company operating for profit in the healthcare sector.

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