Cathal Magee facts for kids

Cathal Magee (born in 1954) was the top boss, called the Chief Executive Officer, of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland. He held this important job from 2010 to 2012. The HSE is Ireland's main health service, like a big hospital and healthcare system for the whole country. Cathal Magee also works as a director for an insurance company called Vhi Healthcare. He was born in County Cavan.

His Early Life and Learning

Cathal Magee studied Management and earned a top degree from the IMI. He also got a Master's degree in how people behave in organizations from Trinity College, Dublin.

What He Did in His Career

Cathal Magee worked for the National Australia Bank Group in both the UK and Ireland. He was also in charge of human resources and making big changes at Bord na Móna, a company that works with peat.

Working at Eircom

In 1995, he joined Telecom Éireann, which is now called Eircom. This is a big phone and internet company in Ireland. He started as the human resources director, which means he looked after all the employees. Later, he became the head of the company's shops and customer services.

In 2009, he was the acting chief executive for six months. During this time, he started a big plan to save money for Eircom. He worked with the company's unions to make these changes. He also helped stop an Australian financier, Rob Topfer, from trying to buy the company too cheaply. He stayed as acting CEO until a new chief executive was appointed. He left Eircom in February 2010.

Leading the Health Service (HSE)

In May 2010, it was announced that Cathal Magee would become the new Chief Executive Officer of the HSE. He took over from Professor Brendan Drumm. It was known that he was the third choice for the job. The first two choices were Professor Tom Keane and Mike Read, an experienced health manager from Australia. These candidates were from outside Ireland, which was seen as an advantage. However, Cathal Magee had worked in the Irish health boards before, which were like the HSE's older versions.

Cathal Magee had a strong background in human resources, which is about managing people. When he was at Eircom, he was known for being calm and working well with unions. He managed to make big changes for the company while keeping good relationships with the staff.

He officially started his five-year term at the HSE on September 1, 2010.

Challenges and Changes at HSE

In May, Cathal Magee said that the HSE had almost €1 billion less money to spend than the year before. But the number of people needing help kept growing. For example, 7,000 more people visited hospital emergency departments in just three months.

He explained that the health system was not working well enough for patients. This was clear from long waiting lists and many patients waiting on trolleys in emergency rooms. He also said that not enough attention was given to "primary care," which is the first stop for health, like visiting your local doctor (GP). This led to overcrowding in hospitals.

The new government planned to move more healthcare into local communities. Cathal Magee called the government's plan to give free GP care to everyone by 2016 "ambitious." This promise was made by the Fine Gael party during the 2011 General Election. He said everyone supported this goal if it could be achieved.

In his first yearly report, published in June 2011, Cathal Magee found problems with the HSE's money and service information systems. He said they "are not fit for purpose," meaning they weren't good enough. He pointed out that the HSE was created by joining 17 different health groups. Since 2005, it had taken in eight more groups. He said that even after five years, it still felt like many separate groups rather than one strong, joined-up organization. He also mentioned that an old-fashioned way of working still existed, which made it hard for the HSE to be a fast and modern health service.

Leaving the HSE

On July 18, 2012, it was announced that Cathal Magee would leave his job at the HSE. New rules, called the Health Service Executive Governance Bill 2012, were being put in place. These rules would create a new role called Director General and six main departments for areas like hospitals and local healthcare.

Dr James Reilly, who was the Minister for Health, said these changes would make patient care better. He also said the system would be more answerable to the minister. He explained that Cathal Magee had written to the Department of Health on July 13, 2012, saying he planned to step down. Cathal Magee chose not to receive money for the three years he had left on his contract. Dr Reilly said Mr Magee had not resigned but would leave during the changeover period.

These changes came at a difficult time for the HSE. It had spent €280 million more than its budget and was expected to spend €500 million more by the end of the year. It was announced that Tony O'Brien would take over from Cathal Magee.

His Family Life

Cathal Magee lives with his wife, Rosaleen, who was born in America. They live in County Wicklow with their four children, two sons and two daughters.