Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 556 and 557 together.

The Hospital Group Boards, which are being established on an administrative basis, will be required to oversee the effective planning, management and implementation of the integration of services across the Group to achieve an optimum, cohesive, high quality and safe service provision. They will also need to establish a process to oversee the development of relationships with all key stakeholders including the academic partners of the group, primary, community and social care providers, local patient representative groups, research institutes, research funding agencies and professional bodies. Given the scale of the change process involved, the Boards must be populated with individuals with the expertise and competencies necessary to deliver on the strategic agenda. The composition of the Hospital Group Boards, is based on the governance recommendations the HIQA Tallaght Hospital Investigation Report (HIQA, 2012) and the Report on Hospital Groups (DoH, 2013). These reports recommended that the Boards should be competency based and comprised of expertise in at least, but not limited to, the following domains: Clinical; Business; Social; Legal; Medical Academic; Patient Advocacy.

My Department, in consultation with the HSE and HIQA, has developed a competency framework to be used in selecting suitable Board members in consultation with the Hospital Group Chairs. Group Board members, including the Ireland East Hospital Group Board, will be selected on the basis of having the necessary competencies to enable them to contribute to and challenge the performance of the hospital groups.