Martin Higgins Chief executive, safefood, the Food Safety Promotion Board.
Personal/family: Born in Dublin. Married to Mary and we have three teenage daughters - Ciara, Niamh and Caitriona.
What figure from the world of medicine/health do you most admire?
Prof Patrick Wall, the former Food Safety Authority chief. Patrick did for food safety what Michael Flatley did for Irish dancing.
What other career might you have chosen?
Something in the theatrical field. I still harbour ambitions to run a theatre at some point in my career.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
To vastly improve the quality of acute psychiatric services in our public hospitals.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
Rats! Even if I see one while driving I get shivers!
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
When I was 20 I had my appendix removed in the Mater Hospital. My bed overlooked the mortuary. I came to after the op and saw a hearse parked outside the window. That really cheered me up.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Hugh Leonard's Home Before Night, a biography of Constance Markievicz, and a book on DIY canoe construction.
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
Beach angling at night - and my persistent failure to catch anything never deters me.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Marian Finnucane on radio and anything on TV that is not a soap or 'reality TV'.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
I could never see myself living permanently abroad. But I could happily live on the Dingle peninsula. It's not another country - it's another world.
Summarise yourself in 12 words.
Short, bald, creative, sense of humour (sounds like a lonely hearts advert!).
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
Thank God, I have had little need for their use - alternative or otherwise.
Who or what makes you laugh?
The uncomplicated wisdom of five-year-old children.