Legislation that will end councillors' roles on the State's health boards has been published today by the Minister for Health.
The seven health boards, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and its three area health boards will be abolished from next January under the Government's health reform programme. The Health Services Executive will take over the daily running of the health system.
The Health (Amendment) Bill 2004 also assigns the functions being carried out by the members of the health boards to the chief executive officers pending the abolition of the boards. At the Association of Health Boards annual conference recently, councillors said they would continue to fight for elected representation in the new health system.
They claimed the loss of their role on the health boards would create a "democratic deficit". Mr Martin said the Bill was an interim measure pending the completion of legislation to establish the Health Service Executive.
"This Bill represents a further phase of the implementation of the reform programme for the health services announced by the Government last June," Mr Martin said.
"The reform programme will build on the achievements made under the existing system, which were largely established in 1970, and modernise health structures so they can deal with the demands placed on the system and plan and deliver high-quality health personal service now and over the coming decades."
The Minister thanked the members of the ERHA and the health boards for their contribution to the health services over the years. He said, however, he was sure that most would agree that after 30 years there was "a need to modernise the structures so as to achieve the objectives set in the Health Strategy, Quality and Fairness".
Mr Martin said he would be bringing proposals to Government shortly to address the issue of democratic input into the new health strucutres.
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Dan Neville, said health boards would no longer be accountable to the public thanks to the legislation.
"Without elected representatives health boards will no longer have to answer directly to the public. Instead, functions previously carried out by elected members will now be put in the hands of Government appointed CEOs. I want to know exactly how Minister Martin thinks this fits into his alleged commitment to reforming the health service.
"Who will now speak for the people on hospital trolleys, the 27,000 waiting for an operation and the 46,000 who lost their medical cards?" Mr Neville said.