Prof Brendan Drumm has been offered the post of chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the health service, writes Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent.
It is understood the board of the HSE yesterday approved the appointment of Dr Drumm, who is professor of paediatrics at University College Dublin and consultant paediatrician at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
His name will now be brought to Cabinet by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, for ratification.
While it is believed that the finer details of his remuneration package have yet to be agreed, Prof Drumm's imminent appointment brings to an end a recruitment process that began last autumn when Prof Aidan Halligan, the deputy chief medical officer at the UK Department of Health, opted not to accept the post.
Prof Halligan had secured a €400,000 annual remuneration package.
Prof Drumm, a leading expert in gastro-intestinal disease in children, graduated from University College Galway in 1979.
Following an internship in Sligo, he underwent specialist training at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, one of the premier centres for paediatrics in North America.
While there, he undertook extensive research into children's liver and gastric diseases.
He returned to the Republic to become consultant paediatrician at Limerick Regional Hospital.
He was then appointed consultant paediatric gastroenterologist at Our Lady's hospital, Crumlin and professor of paediatrics at UCD.
Prof Drumm is a leader in the field of helicobacter pylori (H.Pylori) infection in children. He researches the mechanisms by which the microbe attaches itself to the wall of the stomach at the children's research centre at the Crumlin hospital.
Apart from his academic and clinical experience, Prof Drumm was the last but one chairman of Comhairle na nOspidéal, the body formerly charged with approving hospital consultant posts in the Republic.
Prof Drumm will be responsible for the 96,000 people who work in the health service.
Along with the newly appointed secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, he will be expected to implement key reforms in the health service outlined in the 2004 Health Act.
Meanwhile, Tom Kelly, a former programme manager with the North Western Health Board, has been appointed political adviser to Ms Harney.
An expert in primary care, he will help formulate health policy and will advise both Ms Harney and the Minister of State for Mental Health, Tim O'Malley.