The Government must invest in people with the experience and skills to implement the new structures of the health service, the Irish Patients Association has said.
While the association welcomed the health service structure reforms, it said the Government must ensure that the right people are put in place to manage the new organisation.
"The decision by the Government is a concrete response to build an organisational structure that should enable effective day to day management of our health care system," said an association spokesman, Mr Stephen McMahon.
Given that accountability and value for money had been built in to the new system, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy should have no objections to providing full funding, he said.
