Dr Norman Delanty, Consultant neurologist and director of the multidisciplinary epilepsy programme at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.
Personal/family:Married to Breda with two daughters, Niamh (11) and Saorlaith (8).
What figure from the world of medicine or health do you most admire?
Prof Sam Berkovic from Melbourne Australia who is a modern pioneer in epilepsy clinical research.
What other career might you have chosen?
Non-celebrity chef.
If you could grant three wishes for the health service, what would they be?
That the Irish health service becomes proactive rather than reactive in the management of healthcare. We are tired of fire-fighting on the frontline, exposing ourselves as individuals in an environment of system failures.
The introduction of a ring-fenced health tax or insurance paid by all those in full-time employment as a fixed percentage of income.
The establishment of a multidisciplinary holistic Irish national centre for epilepsy that would allow timely optimum care of individuals with epilepsy and related disorders and facilitate high-class clinical research.
What is your greatest fear?
I'm afraid to say.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes and yes, mainly in dental medicine.
When or where are you happiest?
In south Kerry.
How do you cope with stress?
I go to south Kerry, walk on the Kerry Way and then drink a number of pints of plain.
What is the trait you most admire in yourself?
The inability to say no.
What is the trait you most dislike in yourself?
The inability to say no.
Do you use alternative or complementary medicine or therapies?
Yes. I don't like the term alternative and prefer the term complementary or integrated. My wife Breda is a great believer in integrated medicine, especially for chronic and everyday complaints.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Baldrick in Blackadder.
What is your motto?
There is no perfect situation - there is compromise in everything (adopted from my mother).
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Match of the Day and Tonight with Vincent Browne until it was discontinued inexplicably by RTÉ radio.
What books would you bring to a desert island?
Collected Stories by Frank O'Connor, Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey and How to Cope Without Stress, which I wouldn't have to bring, but would write myself on the island.