A former programme manager to Mary Harney while she was tánaiste has been appointed by the Minister of Health to the chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. Katharine Bulbulia replaces Olive Braiden, who has stepped down after five years.
Ms Bulbulia was programme manager to Ms Harney from 1997 to 2006. She has also served as a former Fine Gael senator, as a member of Waterford county and city councils and of the former south-eastern health board.
The other members of the incoming board of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency will be Helen Faughnan, Department of Social and Family Affairs; businessman Peter Finnegan; Tuam mayor Sally-Ann Flanagan; Anne Flood of the centre for nurse/midwifery education, Letterkenny; Fergal Goodman of the Department of Health; Rosemary Grant, a social worker at the Coombe Women's Hospital; and Geraldine Luddy, director of the Women's Health Council.
The Crisis Pregnancy Agency, established by the Government in 2001, is responsible for formulating and implementing a strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy.