THE Government has hired a group of experts to devise a strategy to encourage private investors into the health service as part of its radical plans to solve the A&E crisis.

THE health board at the centre of an investigation into its failure to put consultancy contracts out to public tender was ticked off for breaking similar rules less than a decade ago.

David Duffy, managing director of Prospectus Consultants, talks to David Clerkin.

THE publication of the third in a series of key reports on health service reform has been deliberately delayed as the Government will be unable to meet its recommendations, the Fine Gael party has claimed.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney has announced the board of Science Foundation Ireland, the body set up to fund research and development.

A THREE-HOUR long Dáil debate on what has been billed as the most fundamental reform of the health service is hardly sufficient to deal with the serious issues at stake.

SOUTHERN Health Board chief executive Sean Hurley yesterday entered the controversial row over the role of consultants, insisting they accept accountability for how the public’s money is spent.

THE current health system would have collapsed in on itself, becoming ever more expensive and less capable, the Prospectus Report found.

IT'S time to bite a few bullets. The Cabinet's top quartet were in defiant form yesterday as they promised delivery on the most radical reform of the health service in 30 years.

THE Brennan Report found three problems with the way finances are managed within the health service: no central control, no accountability and little or no information on where the money goes.

THE Government’s health service reform plan will not deliver any real improvements for patients, Opposition parties claimed last night.

THE Achilles heel of Health Minister Micheál Martin’s plan to reform the health system is the lack of any commitment to fund this ambitious programme to streamline a crisis-ridden and creaking service.

HEALTH board chief executives have undergone formal media training to stave off criticisms of their staff contained in two soon-to-be-published health reports.

The Government was today accused of being in denial about the state of the country’s health service.

VALUE for money will be the key to a radical reform planned for the health service, Tánaiste Mary Harney said yesterday.

DISTRUST between dairy farmers and their co-ops has widened with the acceptance by IFA leader John Dillon of a report, compiled by three Munster farmers, which indicates that co-ops retained 15p (19c) per gallon from their profits in 2001.