Agencies and Health Bodies
Rationalisation of Agencies in the Health Sector for the DOHC website
A major programme of agency rationalisation within the health sector was announced by the Minister for Health on 15th October, 2008. The primary aim of this ambitious programme is to streamline service delivery, professional registration and policy making in a number of areas in the health sector, through the integration and /or amalgamation of functions. Efficiencies will derive over time from economies of scale and the elimination of duplication in areas such as recruitment, procurement, payroll and ICT systems.
Legislation is required to facilitate the rationalisation programme and considerable work is ongoing within the Department in this area at present.
A list of the agencies in the rationalisation programme and the target timeframe for rationalisation.
List of Agencies and Health Bodies
- An Bord Altranais
- Beaumont Hospital Board
- Board of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin incorporating the National Children's Hospital
- Comhairle na Nimheanna
- Consultative Council on Hepatitis C
- HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme
- Dental Council
- Dental Health Foundation
- Drug Treatment Centre Board
- Dublin Dental Hospital Board
- Employers Representative Division
- Food Safety Authority of Ireland
- Food Safety Promotion Board, see Safefood
- Health & Social Care Professionals Council
- Health Information and Quality Authority
- Health Insurance Authority
- Health Protection Surveillance Centre
- Health Research Board
- Institute of Public Health in Ireland
- Irish Blood Transfusion Service
- Irish Medicines Board
- Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare
- Leopardstown Park Hospital Board
- Medical Council
- Mental Health Commission
- National Cancer Registry Board
- National Cancer Screening Service
- National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery
- National Council on Ageing and Older People
- National Haemophilia Council
- National Social Work Qualifications Board
- Nursing Careers Centre
- Office for Health Management
- Office of Tobacco Control
- Office of the Disability Appeals Officer
- Optician's Board
- Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland
- Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board
- Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council
- Primary Care Reimbursement Service
- Safefood
- South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital
- Special Residential Services Board
- St James's Hospital Board
- St Luke's and St. Anne's Hospital Board
- Women's Health Council
List of the agencies in the rationalisation programme
Arising from the Government decision of 8 July 2008 on expenditure measures, a comprehensive programme of agency rationalisation is to be implemented across the public service.
This Department’s measures for the rationalisation of agencies within the health sector have been prepared primarily in the context of the OECD’s recommendations for a more integrated public service. The measures reflect and build upon the progress to date with agency rationalisation within the sector under the overall health reform programme, and take account of experience to date with the practicalities of rationalisation.
The implementation of the rationalisation programme will mean that, the number of health agencies will decline from 30 to 15 agencies. The Department’s main focus to date has been and continues to be the progressing of a significant legislative programme required to facilitate the roll out of this rationalisation programme. Each agency must be dissolved and rationalised by way of Primary Legislation.
It had been originally planned to merge the FSAI and IMB but following a Memo to Government in 2010 it was agreed that both should remain stand alone agencies. Eight bodies have been dissolved to date as follows:
| Agency | Dissolved\Merged | Date |
|---|---|---|
| National Council on Ageing & Older People | Dissolved and subsumed into DoH&C | 1 September 2009 |
| Women's Health Council | Dissolved and subsumed into DoH&C | 1 October 2009 |
| Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board | Dissolved and subsumed into HSE | 1 January 2009 |
| Crisis Pregnancy Agency | Dissolved and subsumed into HSE | 1 January 2010 |
| National Cancer Screening Services Board | Dissolved and subsumed into HSE | 1 April 2010 |
| Office of Tobacco Control | dissolved and functions transferred to the HSE | 1st January 2011 |
| National Social Work Qualifications Board | Subsumed into Health & Social Care Professionals Council | 31st March 2011 |
| Children Acts Advisory Board | Subsumed into the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on an administrative basis | 08th September 2011 |
| Programme for Rationalisation of Agencies in the Health Sector | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | Current Position | Due Date | Next Steps |
| Drug Treatment Centre Board | Currently being dissolved and subsumed into HSE | 01st January 2012 | The Health Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2009 |
| National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery | To be dissolved and subsumed into An Bord Altranais | During 2011 | Enactment of the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2010 |
| National Cancer Registry Board | To be dissolved and subsumed into HSE | 1 January 2012 (Provisionally) | Awaiting enactment of the Health Information Bill |
| Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council | To be subsumed into Health & Social Care Professionals Council | Because of legal and technical issues, the subsuming of PHECC into the HSCPC has been postponed for the immediate future | Health Miscellaneous Provisions Bill to be drafted |
| The Opticians Board | To be subsumed into Health & Social Care Professionals Council | To be confirmed (Provisionally end 2012) | Health Miscellaneous Provisions Bill to be drafted |
