HSE abolition - Minister must regain full control

FROM a political standpoint it may be a poisoned chalice, but it is vital that control of Ireland’s benighted health service be restored to Government control under the firm hand of a minister with unequivocal responsibility for how patients are served and how the huge budget of the HSE is spent.

For having the courage to grasp that nettle, Health Minister James Reilly deserves to be applauded. The die was cast when he announced his intention to ask the HSE Board to resign en masse. Seeing the writing on the wall and not waiting to be asked, the board members expressed their willingness to step down. In reality, they had little choice.

For too long, former health minister Mary Harney was rightly perceived by a jaundiced public as distancing herself from the activities of the HSE. Nobody expects a minister to run its day-to-day business. But, if by disengaging from the traditional hands-on role Ms Harney hoped to put herself beyond political criticism, it was a tactic that blew up in her face as the HSE and the last government trundled from crisis to crisis in tandem.