FG: Health reforms won't create one extra bed

The Government is due to publish details of its planned reform of the health services later today.

Yesterday, the cabinet endorsed plans to abolish Ireland's 11 health boards and replace them with four executive bodies staffed by health experts.

Under the plans, politicians and their appointees would lose their prestigious health board seats, a move that could anger opposition parties and government backbenchers.

A new agency would also be established to run Ireland's hospitals.

Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell has already described the proposed reform as a political decoy designed to create the illusion that the Government was doing something positive about the health service.

She said the plans would not create one single extra hospital bed.