The board will be appointed on an administrative basis until the relevant legislation has passed. These positions were advertised through the State Board process operated by the Public Appointments Service. They will join Mr Ciarán Devane, announced as Chair of the HSE Board in September 2018.
The new appointees announced today are:
· Mr Fergus Finlay, former CEO of Barnardos
· Mr Tim Hynes, Group Chief Information Officer, AIB
· Prof Deirdre Madden, professor of law at UCC and chair of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance. Dr Madden will be appointed Deputy Chair of the HSE Board
· Dr Sarah McLoughlin, Science and Communication Officer at Retina International and patient advocate
· Mr Mark Molloy, Quantity Surveyor, member of the Expert Group on Tort Reform and Management of Clinical Negligence Claims and patient advocate
· Mr Aogán Ó Fearghail, former GAA President
· Ms Fiona Ross, chair of CIE and Mental Health Ireland
· Dr Yvonne Traynor, vice president of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs with Kerry Group
According to a statement from the Department, the appointees reflect the range of competencies sought for prospective HSE board members through the State Board’s process. There remains one final position on the board to be announced in the coming weeks “which will have particular relevance to the competency area of financial planning and management”.
Under the new Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2018, to be enacted in early 2019, the board will be the governing body of the HSE and accountable to the Minister for Health for the performance of its functions. The CEO of the HSE will be accountable to the Board.
Minister Harris said: “I am pleased to confirm the names of eight new appointees to the Board of the HSE. Chosen for excellence and leadership in their fields, the new board will play a crucial role in reform of our health service as we implement Sláintecare”.
“We have also fulfilled a key recommendation from Dr Gabriel Scally’s report by ensuring the board will have members with patient advocacy experience and expertise. This will ensure the patient’s voice is embedded in the reform of our health service and patient concerns are at the heart of the key decisions taken.
“I want to thank all those who applied, with specific thanks to the individuals who have been chosen to take up these challenging but exciting positions. This Board will be a key component in strengthening HSE governance and will contribute to enhancing the oversight and performance of the HSE.”
Priority issues for the new HSE Board include:
· Developing and implementing an effective performance management and accountability system in the HSE
· Developing a plan for building public trust and confidence in the HSE and the wider health service
· Ensuring the HSE’s full support for and implementation of the Government’s programme of health reform as set out in the Sláintecare Implementation Plan
The HSE Governance Bill has passed Second Stage and will now proceed to Committee Stage. The Minister for Health has secured Cabinet approval to bring forward a number of amendments to the HSE Governance Bill. There are three changes proposed.
The first is a requirement for the Minister to give a three-year Strategic Direction Statement to the HSE Board to inform the preparation by the HSE of its three-year Corporate Plan to be supplemented by yearly Statements of Priorities.
The second is a change in approach to the annual Service Plan, now to be an annual Performance Delivery Plan. As part of this process, the Minister’s approval of the Performance Delivery Plan will not be required but the HSE must submit the draft Plan to the Minister and the Minister may direct the HSE to amend the Plan. In line with this, similar new arrangements will apply to the Capital Plan, also an annual process.
The third will designate specific functions to the Board and the CEO with a focus on performance and accountability. The amendments will also require the Board to establish arrangements for managing the CEO’s performance.
Board member biographies (provided by Department of Health)
Mr Ciarán Devane – Chair
Mr Devane is Chief Executive of the British Council, a £1.2 billion public body with 12,000 staff in 115 countries. He was a member of a board of NHS England from 2012-2015 and was also Chief Executive of the UK health charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. He was knighted for his services to cancer patients.
Mr Fergus Finlay
Mr Finlay has recently retired after thirteen years as CEO of Barnardos, Ireland’s largest children’s charity. For around twenty years prior to that he was employed as senior adviser to the Labour Party. He was one of the drafters of the Downing Street Declaration and was centrally involved in the election of President Mary Robinson. He also served as a Director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations. He is the author of four best-selling books.
He has been a life-long campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities and is currently chair of a government task force to implement a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. For ten years he has also worked as Chair of the Dolphin House Regeneration Board. He is also Chair of Lakers in Bray, a highly successful club and service provider for young people and adults with an intellectual disability. He broadcasts regularly on radio and television and contributes a weekly column to the Irish Examiner. He was awarded a Human Rights Award by the French Embassy in Dublin in 2013 to recognise the work of Barnardos with Ireland’s children. He was also honoured by University College Cork as an Outstanding Alumnus in 2016.
Mr Tim Hynes
Mr Hynes, Group Chief Information Officer for AIB, has a broad range of experience across a number of disciplines, including brand marketing, operations, change management, and technology. He has 30 years’ experience in blue chip organisations where he has held both regional and global roles, leading teams spread across more than 40 countries. He holds a Masters in Executive Leadership from Ulster University, is a qualified bank director, and Fellow of the Irish Computer Society.
Prof Deirdre Madden – Deputy Chair
Prof Madden BCL, LLM, BL, PhD is Professor of law at University College Cork. Her research interests are healthcare law and ethics. She was the author of the Madden Report on Post Mortem Practice, chaired the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance, and has been a member of numerous expert groups providing expertise on issues related to medical law, ethics and patient safety. Prof Madden also has extensive experience of professional regulation. Most recently she was a member of the Independent Review Group examining the role of voluntary organisations in health and social care.
Dr Sarah McLoughlin
Dr McLoughlin has a passion for ensuring patients and the public are a constructive voice in the research and healthcare conversation. Her work is driven by her cancer diagnosis in 2016 and enriched by her background in the biomedical research sector. She is a graduate of the first ‘Patient Education Programme in Health Innovation’ in Ireland by IPPOSI. Dr McLoughlin is currently Science and Communication Officer at Retina International, and participates in patient, clinical and research initiatives in cross-disease areas in Ireland.
Mr Mark Molloy
Since the avoidable death of their infant son in January 2012, Mark Molloy and his wife Roisin, have been at the forefront of striving for improvements in patient safety, outcomes and experiences across all spectrums of healthcare provision in Ireland.
Their work to find the truth about Baby Mark’s death highlighted many areas in the health service that were having a negative impact on service users, including a lack of managerial accountability, no open disclosure, inadequate and inconsistent investigation processes, not learning from mistakes and the lack of compassion for patients.
Over the past seven years, the Molloys have worked with and provided independent support to service users who have been harmed by healthcare in Ireland, while also working closely with HIQA, the HPRA, and the Department of Health, on patient safety issues, policy and advocacy matters. They were instrumental in the establishment of the National Patient Safety Office.
Mr Molloy is a Quantity Surveyor by profession and has extensive experience in multi-million euro projects over the past 25 years in Ireland, the UK and Europe.
Mr Aogán Ó Fearghail
Mr Ó Fearghail was GAA President from 2015 to 2018. A former primary school principal, he currently works as a School Placement Tutor with DCU. As GAA President he led the association through a period of transformational change, establishing strong financial security and increasing participation rates with enhanced public confidence in the Association. He also, in conjunction with health promotion agencies, introduced a Health Promotion Unit at Croke Park and initiatives which focussed on physical and mental health issues. Mr Ó Fearghail has a lifetime experience of delivering transformational change at a national, regional and local level. He possesses wide experience of corporate governance, change management, financial planning and stakeholder management.
Ms Fiona Ross
Recently appointed Chair of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), Ms Ross has served on 17 boards in Ireland and the UK. She began her career as a stockbroker in the City of London and spent 25 years working in Capital Markets in Dublin, London, Eastern Europe and the US. A former Director/CEO of the National Library, she also currently Chairs Mental Health Ireland. Ms Ross currently lectures on Governance at the Irish Management Institute (IMI).
Dr Yvonne Traynor
Dr Traynor is vice president of Regulatory & Scientific Affairs with Kerry Group since 2015. Prior to that, she held a number of global and regional leadership positions with German consumer goods company, Henkel. She has a particular interest in organisational transformation, risk management and delivering excellent customer experience. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin which, notably, resulted in a patent for the Nicotine Patch, as an aid for smoking cessation. Later, she obtained a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance and an MSc in Executive Leadership. She is also a chartered director and has several years board experience, including the role of chairperson of the audit, risk and compliance committee of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.
