MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney has signalled she would like to see Prof Tom Keane take over the running of the Health Service Executive (HSE) when Prof Brendan Drumm’s contract expires next August.
Prof Keane, who is head of the national cancer control programme, is the favourite with Paddy Power bookmakers to take over as chief executive of the HSE when Prof Drumm departs.
Asked yesterday to comment on whether this might happen, Ms Harney told reporters in Cork she might even put a bet on herself.
But she stressed she would not be involved in the selection of the new chief executive. “It will be an entirely independent process which the board of the HSE will establish,” she said. “There’s nobody more than me would like to see Prof Keane stay in Ireland, he’s done a remarkable job, but that would be a matter for Prof Keane not for me,” she said.
Prof Keane pointed out however that he has to return to Canada, having been seconded from his job there for two years to lead the reorganisation of cancer services in the Republic.
“There’s always speculation – that’s what the Irish media live by – I have to go back to Canada in the springtime,” he said.
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