Chairman’s negotiating skills help to seal new contract

LIKELY agreement on a new consultants’ contract after almost five years of talks is a tribute to the painstaking negotiating skills of independent chairman and barrister Mark Connaughton, who is tipped to be a judge soon.

When Mr Connaughton was appointed by Health Minister Mary Harney in 2005, he expected his role would be completed within months and he could return to his day job in the Four Courts.

However, gruelling discussions dragged on month after month — as several deadlines came and went — in an attempt to carve out an agreement between all parties.

He learned quickly about the entrenched positions of the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association and the Irish Medical Organisation and their opposition to radical changes to long-standing work practices.

Mr Connaughton was hand-picked by the Government to chair the talks after an impressive background in the Law Library.

As a student, he graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science degree from University College Dublin. He followed that up with a Masters in Business Studies and subsequently graduated as a barrister from King’s Inn.

He worked as a negotiator for a number of years with the Federation of Irish Employers (later known as IBEC) before changing to a career in law.

He began work as a junior counsel in 1989 and became a senior counsel in 2002.

Specialising in areas like commercial law, he represented clients in many high-profile cases.

Colleagues in the Law Library describe him as an affable character with a forensic attention to detail.

“He is very highly regarded and can master a brief very quickly,” said one barrister. “I wasn’t surprised that he was appointed as the talks chairman. He is a natural conciliator.

“He has shown huge patience with the various medical organisations.”

Another Law Library colleague said; “A lot of people see him as going to the bench sometime soon and his stint as chairman of the consultant talks won’t do him any harm at all.”