Factfile - Dr David McCutcheon

Name: Dr David McCutcheon.

Age: 47.

Family: Married with two children.

Education: Gormanston College; Royal College of Surgeons, MD; Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada, Master of Business Administration.

Background: Spent 13 years as partner in general practice in Newfoundland, Canada. Three years in the post of medical director, St Clare's hospital, Newfoundland. Five years as vice-president, medicine, at Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Three years as chief executive officer at Hamilton Civic Hospital, Ontario, which serves a catchment area of 1.7 million people.

Why in the news: As chief executive of the new Tallaght hospital, he will welcome its first patients on Sunday week. The new hospital is the largest health-care project ever undertaken by the State at a cost of £130 million.

Dr McCutcheon will be responsible for an annual budget of £60 million and the deployment of almost 2,000 staff. The hospital will serve a large catchment area including Tallaght, Clondalkin, Firhouse, Templeogue, Terenure and Rathfarnham in Dublin, west Wicklow and parts of Carlow.