Dr Brian Maurer Physician and medical director of the Irish Heart Foundation.
Personal/family: Wife, three children, three grandchildren and one dog, deceased.
What figure from the world of medicine or health do you most admire?
Mary Harney for having the courage to attempt the impossible.
What other career might you have chosen?
Law.
If you could grant three wishes for the health service, what would they be?
Ensure co-operation to further develop the excellent services for all patients; develop communication to facilitate co-operation, and ease access to services and provide them where they are not available.
What is your greatest fear?
That the present confrontation between funders and providers will continue indefinitely and prevent rational development.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes and yes.
When or where are you happiest?
On the golf course at Lahinch.
How do you cope with stress?
Badly.
What is the trait you most admire in yourself?
The ability to make a quick decision.
What is the trait you most dislike in yourself?
Rushing to judgment.
Do you use alternative or complementary medicine or therapies?
No.
Who or what makes you laugh?
The BBC comedy Yes Minister.
What is your motto?
Persist? (from the Kennedy family motto - adhaereo virtuti).
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
RTÉ's Questions and Answers.
What books would you bring to a desert island?
James Joyce's Ulysses, and I'd get a chance to finish it.