Alan M. Dukes
Question:38 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for Health and Children the criteria used when appointing persons to the Irish Medicines Board and the Advisory Committee for Human Medicines. [9895/01]
Other Questions. - Appointments to State Boards.
The Irish Medicines Board is a management board and consists of nine members who were appointed in accordance with section 7 of the Irish Medicines Board Act, 1995, for a period of five years ending 31 December 2005. In view of the fact that the board controls and licenses veterinary as well as human medicines, three of the members were appointed by me on the nomination of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
They happen to be from Cork.
One of them is from Cork.
Both Ministers are from Cork.
One of the three was appointed by the Deputy's party leader when Minister for Health and Children. He was reappointed on the suggestion of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. This is getting ridiculous. Of the remaining six members appointed by me, three were previous members of the board, appointed in 1996, and reappointed. The remaining three were new appointments.
The Advisory Committee for Human Medicines was appointed by me in accordance with section 9 of the Irish Medicines Board Act, 1995. The committee consists of 12 members, five of whom had previously been appointed in 1996. The members of the board and the advisory committee were appointed on the basis of their knowledge and expertise, their availability and willingness to serve and to participate in the work of the board and the advisory committee. The need to provide the necessary expertise – consumer, management and scientific – was the major factor which applied when appointing persons to these bodies. The advisory committee is largely scientific based and members have knowledge in this area. I appointed those recommended for their specialities.
The Minister is aware that I have raised with him several times, both here and at the Joint Committee on Health and Children, his continued use of boards and committees of this kind to appoint people from his own bailiwick. I have specifically raised his appointments to the BTSB. Mr. Pat O'Mahony has an address in Blackrock, but I suspect he has a Cork connection. Three of the remaining seven members of the Irish Medicines Board are from Cork. Of the 12 members on the advisory committee, at least, five are from Cork.
The Minister indicated that appointees are selected on the basis of their knowledge. Is he not aware that people from the other 25 counties have similar knowledge? Does he agree that it is a scandal that he should fill boards of this kind with appointments from his bailiwick? They are of no benefit to Fianna Fáil or his constituency colleagues. It is done for his personal benefit to groom his ego. It is the wrong thing to do with State boards and committees.
I reject the Deputy's outrageous allegations.
I will name them.
With regard to five of the 12 members of the advisory committee, three are from Cork and working in University Hospital Cork or the health service. One was recommended to me by the Department. I did not seek these people to appoint them. One was appointed because of the nature of his expertise in medicinal products and psychiatry. That person had already been a member of sub-boards of the IMB long before I was appointed Minister and had done much work with the board.
Is there anybody from counties Monaghan, Galway or Limerick?
The Deputy has cast aspersions on people who have nothing to do with me in terms of politics or anything else. The second person the Department asked me to nominate to the advisory committee is a specialist in leukaemia and Hodgkin's disease. The third appointee is an expert in haemophilia and viscosity syndromes. I do not know what are the politics of the three people concerned. Once they had been recommended by my officials there was no reason to debar them because they worked in University College Hospital Cork.
The chairperson of the main board was appointed by Deputy Noonan when Minister for Health and Children. It was recommended to me that he had made a significant contribution in the chair and I reappointed him following that advice. I indicated to the Joint Committee on Health and Children that another person, recently returned to the country, was appointed because of her interest in alternative health products. She is a leading figure in health advice for consumers. It is the first time the board has an appointee with a record and expertise in traditional medicinal products.
Of the 12 board members on the BTSB, there is no member from the Western Health Board, the North Western Health Board, the Midlands Health Board, the Mid-Western Health Board, the South Eastern Health Board or the North Eastern Health Board area.
The Minister of State, Deputy Moffatt, let us down.
However, it has five members from Cork plus a graduate from UCC, two other representatives from the Southern Health Board area, the Minister's personal secretary from the Department of Health and Children and the former Secretary General of Fianna Fáil, making up ten of the 12 members.
In the case of the appointments to the Irish Medicines Board, at least three out of seven – probably four out of eight – are from Cork. In the case of the sub-committee on human medicines, at least five of the 12 are from Cork. Is the Minister telling me that the rest of the country is made up of ignoramuses?
Deputy Mitchell, your minute is concluded.
Cork does have something to offer the national scene.
The Minister is not it.
Deputy Mitchell might not recognise that. His track record, even when in Government, suggested he did not have particular regard for the people of Cork.
The Minister should not be too hard on Deputy Mitchell.
I had better make one further disclosure to the House. I subsequently learned that the parents or the grandparents of the Chairman of the IMB may have come from County Cork. I had better put that on the record.
UCC is a national university. It takes graduates from all over the country. Just because somebody now living in Dublin, who has been working in Dublin for the past 15 years, happened to be educated at undergraduate level in UCC is no basis for an elaborate conspiracy theory.
Time and again the Minister abused the trust to his personal advantage.