The announcement that a hospital consultant with vast experience in the Irish health sector is to take over responsibility for running the health service has been widely welcomed.
Colleagues at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, medical and nursing organisations and patient groups have welcomed news that Minister for Health Mary Harney has accepted a recommendation from the Health Service Executive (HSE) that Prof Brendan Drumm be appointed its chief executive.
All that now remains is for Prof Drumm (48) to agree a remuneration package and a start date.
Born in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, Prof Drumm is professor of paediatrics at University College Dublin and a consultant paediatric gastroenterologist at Crumlin Hospital.
As chief executive of the HSE, the father of four, whose wife Dr Marion Rowland also works in Crumlin, will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the health service, its 97,000 staff and its €11 billion budget.
After studying medicine at University College Galway, Prof Drumm quickly progressed in his career and after a period working at one of the world's most prestigious children's hospitals, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and at Limerick Regional Hospital, he was at the age of 34 appointed professor and head of the department of paediatrics at UCD.
He has simultaneously held down his post at Crumlin Hospital and has been a driving force behind the campaign for better facilities there.
While some have expressed concern about the amount of management experience he might have, Prof Drumm has never been afraid to criticise services which he felt needed improving.
He also spoke out in 2003 about the seven-year "turf war" between the three Dublin children's hospitals which had resulted in a much-needed consultant post remaining vacant for seven years.
He said that rather than confront the vested interests, the Department of Health had decided to send children needing complex urology surgery to Britain. This was ridiculous, he said.
Linda Dillon, chairwoman of the New Crumlin Hospital Group, which has been campaigning on behalf of parents for the complete redevelopment of the hospital, expressed delight yesterday at his imminent appointment. "He's a very special person, and I'd say he has an incredible capacity for work," she said.
Geraldine Regan, director of nursing in Crumlin and former president of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery, said she could testify to his inclusive and empowering management style.
"He has involved nurses at senior management level and he practises a true multidisciplinary approach," she said.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association general secretary, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said Prof Drumm would have a first-hand appreciation of the need for capital investment in hospitals and the dire need to increase bed capacity.
The Irish Medical Organisation's chief executive, George McNeice, said the IMO looked forward to working in partnership with Prof Drumm on the many challenges facing the health service.
Janette Byrne of Patients Together said it was wonderful that somebody who was in touch with what was happening in hospitals on a day-to-day basis was taking over.