Wanted: top candidate for vital job

TO lose one chief executive may be regarded as a misfortune — to lose two looks like carelessness.

Tánaiste Mary Harney could well be the butt of Oscar Wilde’s quip as, for the second time in four months, a chief executive designate has reneged on taking the top job in the Health Service Executive (HSE), the body with statutory responsibility for the provision of healthcare services.

According to Ms Harney, the Department of Health was unable to meet the financial demands of Professor Brendan Drumm. But according to Dr Drumm, who was head-hunted, he agreed the same 500,000 a-year-deal offered to British-based Professor Aidan Halligan, who cited family reasons when he withdrew.

Dr Drumm, who planned putting a five-person team of reform strategists in place at the HSE, is a consultant paediatric gastroenterologist at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and head of the UCD School of Paediatrics. Apparently, difficulties arose when he sought a guarantee the posts would still be open to him in five years time. Even before it is filled, the post of HSE supremo bears all the hallmarks of a poisoned chalice, a career minefield. With the health service creaking, Ms Harney and the Department cannot afford to lose any more candidates for this vital job.