A TASK force has been set up by the Minister for Health to establish an Eastern Regional Health Authority. It will be chaired by Mr Donal O'Shea, chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board.
Mr Noonan, who was speaking at the IMPACT divisional conference for members in the health services, said the new authority would coordinate funding and strategic planning for all health services in the former Eastern Health Board area, including large voluntary hospitals.
He told the conference that the Department of Health, with only 350 staff was not geared to manage effectively the £2.5 billion budget or 65,000 personnel providing health care.
Mr Noonan departed from his script to say that "in my view management in the past, and up until quite recently, was weak, because it was drawn from too narrow a sector".
He told delegates, to loud applause, that in future more health professionals who showed a flair for management would be promoted to ensure the use of resources was maximised.
Already, in areas where women predominated, they had shown they had the management skills needed.
In future, training for health professionals, particularly at undergraduate level, would incorporate management elements.
With a reference to the recent nurses' and paramedics' disputes - in both of which IMPACT was involved - Mr Noonan said he hoped "our differences are behind us and that, utilising our combined efforts in a partnership approach, it will be possible to concentrate on the job of providing the best possible health service to the public".
Responding to the Minister, IMPACT's national secretary for health, Ms Christina Carney, said the past year had been "one of the most difficult, traumatic and frustrating periods in our history". However, she thanked the Minister for "always being available to this union" for discussion during the various disputes.
IMPACT would always negotiate to the bitter end and, only as a last resort" take to the picket lines, Ms Carney said.
Referring to the paramedics' strike, she added: "We found ourselves in that position and I can only say that it was with deep regret. But throughout the dispute our members ensured that a level of essential and emergency services was maintained."