The process to select the next chief executive of Ireland’s largest employer, with a workforce of more than 148,000 full-time equivalents and a budget of €26.9 billion for this year, is moving along.
Applications closed this week for the position of HSE chief executive, which comes with a salary of €398,174. The competition is being run to replace Bernard Gloster, who tendered his resignation in May after three years in the role and 38 years in the health service. He departs in March.
A five-year specified purpose contract is on offer, based on a 35-hour “standard working week”, which comes out at €218.77 per hour, though the successful candidate may “from time to time be required to work additional hours for the proper discharge of their duties”.
“This post is being advertised at a time when there are long-standing challenges in health services, and it is recognised that tackling these challenges will require strong leadership and commitment,” the HSE’s candidate booklet notes.
It cites a growing and ageing population, health inequalities and attracting and retaining the right workforce as big issues the eventual appointee will have to combat.
“Specifically, the number of people waiting for treatment is too long and there are annual problems with emergency department overcrowding,” it adds, somewhat familiarly.
Among those mentioned in health service circles as potential internal contenders are regional executive officers Tony Canavan (HSE West and North West) and Martina Queally (HSE Dublin and South East).
External runners are also expected in the competition for a job that seeks someone with “extensive transformational leadership skills”, “excellent problem solving and analytical” abilities and the capacity to “exercise exceptional judgment in the face of conflicting pressures”.
One outsider who will not be throwing their hat in the ring is former minister for health Stephen Donnelly. Despite significant speculation, he is not seeking to bring his management consultancy skills to Dr Steevens’ Hospital.
Late Malachy McCourt facing a ‘public hanging’ in New York
A New York street is to be renamed in honour of the late writer, actor and broadcaster Malachy McCourt, one of the most gregarious and beloved exemplars of the Irish-American experience.
Born in Brooklyn to Irish emigrant parents Angela (née Sheehan) and Malachy McCourt snr, on September 20th, 1931, McCourt returned to his mother’s native Limerick as a three-year-old at the height of the depression.
He spent his formative years there but returned to New York aged 20 after being sent the fare by his brother Frank, who then worked as a schoolteacher but went on to write the bestselling memoir Angela’s Ashes.
Over the next 70 years Malachy established himself as a chronicler of New York’s literary and bohemian scene, writing memoirs of his own, including the popular A Monk Swimming.
He was also a bar owner, raconteur and actor, appearing on stage and in films including Brewster’s Millions and The Devil’s Own. He stood as Green Party candidate for New York governor in 2006, a race won by Democrat Eliot Spitzer.
The honour comes after months of lobbying by McCourt’s friends and fans, spearheaded by New York councillor Gale Brewer. Malachy McCourt Lane will be close to West 84th Street, where a high school is named after Frank.
“It’s appropriate that it’s not Malachy McCourt ‘Street’, ‘Boulevard’ or ‘Avenue’,” said playwright John McDonagh, a long-time friend and radio co-host of McCourt’s. “It’s ‘Lane’. New York doesn’t have lanes, but Limerick does.”
An event, hosted by McCourt’s daughter Siobhán, dubbed The Public Hanging of Malachy McCourt, will see a street sign bearing his name unveiled on the corner of 93rd Street and West End Avenue, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, on Saturday, September 27th.
Leafy greater Dublin facing autumnal rail changes
Autumn is a time of change and there’s more than darker mornings and shorter evenings coming for commuters in the Greater Dublin Area.
From Monday, Iarnród Éireann is, for the first time, adjusting its timetable to reflect the impact of “leaf fall on rail services”. This will add one to three minutes to journey times until December 14th.
“Autumn leaf fall causes low rail adhesion, with leaves – especially in damp and wet autumnal conditions – creating a greasy layer on the rail that is the equivalent of black ice on roads,” it said.
“To ensure safety, train drivers must drive more cautiously and accelerate and decelerate more slowly at times when rails are affected.”
The upshot is that morning services on Dart and Dublin commuter routes will be moved forward “to achieve scheduled arrival times at destination”, while evening services will depart as scheduled, meaning passengers will get home a bit later.
While the “autumn timetable” is a maiden venture for Iarnród Éireann, the carrier insists counterparts in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the US and Canada have long been doing so.
Hayes brings Obama back to the front pages before Dublin visit
Barack Obama unexpectedly made a return to the Irish news cycle this week, just days before he visits Dublin for a money-spinning event at the 3Arena.
The images of the offensive Halloween costume foolishly worn by Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes back in his college days were not needed to help shift tickets for An Evening with President Barack Obama, In Conversation with Fintan O’Toole.
Friday’s event is sold out, with only resale tickets, ranging in price from €165.32 to €441.32, available earlier this week via Ticketmaster.
There’s one other matter that could be sorted during the former president’s visit, an outstanding offer of the freedom of Dublin city made to him and his wife, Michelle, in 2017, but never taken up.
Lord Mayor Ray McAdam this week said there was “ongoing engagement” with Obama’s office about tying up that loose end.
Meanwhile, a 2013 article on the University College Cork website, Mr Hayes goes to Washington, recounts the former students union president’s experience working on Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign, some three years after that “blackface” episode.
“Oftentimes I had to pinch myself. They were definitely the smartest group of people I ever worked with,” he said of the “assortment of technologists and politicos” who aided the Democrat’s cause.
“I think this kind of technologically focused, data-driven, grassroots campaign is more of what we’ll see in politics all over the world.”
