FORMER HEAD of the State’s national cancer control programme Prof Tom Keane is now the preferred candidate to take over as Health Service Executive chief executive following two rounds of interviews for the post.
Seven candidates – three internal and four external – were interviewed for the job, which falls vacant in August when Prof Brendan Drumm departs after his five-year term as the HSE’s first chief executive.
A number of candidates who applied for the post were telephoned on Friday by head-hunting firm Amrop Strategis and told they had been unsuccessful in their bid to succeed Prof Drumm.
A source close to the process said they understood Prof Keane was now the preferred candidate and his name will go before a meeting of the HSE board on Thursday. The name of a second or reserve candidate – who was one of the external candidates in the recruitment process – is also expected to be put before the board in case anything unforeseen should occur in brokering a deal with Prof Keane.
He has been the frontrunner for the job since getting the ringing endorsement of Minister for Health Mary Harney before Christmas.
She told reporters in December: “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.”
And in January Prof Keane indicated he himself was interested in the post. He returned to Canada last month as pre-arranged after two years of leading the reorganisation of cancer services across the State.
However, he is willing to return to head up the HSE later this year if he gets the Government backing he feels he needs to do the job. It is understood that he would be willing to do the job for two to three years, not five years like his predecessor.
He will be on a significantly lower salary than Prof Drumm who was on a basic salary of €371,291 plus bonuses.
The Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector recommended last year that the salary for the new chief executive should be around €303,000, but since then a pension levy and pay cuts for higher public servants have reduced that considerably.
When Prof Keane was recruited to reorganise cancer services, the total value of this contract was €317,000 annually for two years.