Health boards will be abolished within the next few days when a statutory order is signed by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
The signing of the order will mark the commencement of the Health (Amendment) Bill, 2004. This is expected to happen next week.
It will result in the transfer of powers currently vested in health boards to their chief executives until such time as the new Health Service Executive (HSE) takes over the running of the health service on January 1st.
The Department of Health moved yesterday to quell confusion over when the health boards would be abolished. This follows concerns expressed at a meeting of the Southern Health Board that it had not been informed it was to be dissolved. It said it would meet again in July unless it heard formally it was to be dissolved.
If the July meeting went ahead it would have meant county and city councils, which are electing new members today, would have had to nominate some of their newly-elected members to the health board before then.
Mr Martin said earlier this year he felt there was no point in newly-elected councils nominating members to health boards for a short period of time, and he planned to abolish the health boards after today's local elections to avoid that happening.
A spokesman for the Minister confirmed last evening this was still the plan. He said the Health (Amendment) Bill, 2004, giving effect to the changes, had passed through both houses of the Oireachtas, and all that remained was for a statutory instrument to be signed by the Minister. This would happen "very shortly".