Dr Jane Wilde is on the couch this week
Occupation: Public health doctor and director of Institute of Public Health
Personal/Family: An extended and supportive family network including two grown-up sons.
What figure from the world of health/medicine do you most admire?
The unnamed community health activist working with people in the most deprived communities.
What alternative career might you have chosen?
Botanist, poet, Olympic athlete sadly, I was short on talent.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
A mouse in my house
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Is a good patient, one who gets better?
You have been appointed Minister for Health, what will your first priority be?
As Minister my immediate priority is to convince my cabinet colleagues that all their activities affect health, that the health and quality of life of the public should be the number one national priority and all government business should reflect this.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
I would bring: George Eliot's Middlemarch, Ben Okri's Mental Fight and Michael Longley's collection: The Weather in Japan.
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
A walk round Horn Head in Donegal, ending up looking from Pollaguill Bay across to Tory Island.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.
If you did not live in Ireland where would you chose to spend the rest of your life?
Where the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef
Summarise yourself in 12 words?
Enthusiastic, determined committed, loyal, hopeful, questioning, impatient and human.
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
I enjoy aromatherapy, pilates and swimming in the Atlantic.
Who or what makes you laugh?
My two sisters.