Aileen O'Meara is on the couch this week
Occupation: Communications manager, Irish Hospice Foundation
Personal & Family: Married to Cathal Guiomard, economist. Daughters Elvira (five) and Sophia (two)
What figure from the world of health/medicine do you most admire?
Nurses, especially those who provide patient-centred care under the difficult conditions of busy A&E departments.
What alternative career might you have chosen?
I've never thought about doing anything else except a career in the communications business.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
Deregulate the training and appointment of doctors.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
Mice and cockroaches.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes and no.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
William Trevor's Collected Short Stories; Philippe Delerm's The Small Pleasures of Life; and Helen Dillon's On Gardening.
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
A walk on my own or uninterrupted pottering in the garden.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
The West Wing.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
On a quiet hillside, near the sea, in the south west of France.
Summarise yourself in 12 words?
Outgoing, energetic, friendly, ambitious, family-centred, stubborn, calm under pressure, and tenacious.
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
I regularly attend yoga classes, and have used reflexology in the past for respiratory complaints.
Who or what makes you laugh?
My children, and my female friends in a good session of letting off steam and catching up on the latest gossip.