Further appointments to the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service are expected following yesterday's announcement that the Donegal county manager, Mr Michael McLoone, is to chair the IBTS.
Mr McLoone replaces Prof Patricia Barker, who resigned recently in the controversy over plans to stop testing blood in Cork and to centralise it in Dublin. Two further vacancies on the board are due to be filled.
Mr McLoone is a former chief executive of Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, and has been county manager in Donegal since 1994.
Prof Barker, who is registrar at Dublin City University, resigned last month but her letter of resignation has never been published despite continuing calls from Fine Gael for its release. She is believed to have blamed divisions in the board of the IBTS for her resignation.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had appointed three Cork people to the board even though a number of health board regions are not represented. This has led to persistent calls from Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell TD, for the Minister to appoint a new, nationally representative board. The Minister has said that this will not happen.
Divisions within the IBTS led earlier this year to an investigation by the industrial relations specialist Mr Phil Flynn, who has recommended changes in management structures.
The controversy goes back to 1994, when Dr Joan Power, senior IBTS official in Cork, uncovered the Hepatitis C blood scandal. Dr Power was removed from a number of bodies in the IBTS earlier this year but Mr Flynn said she should be involved in all relevant committees.
The other board vacancies to be filled were created by the earlier resignations of Prof Shaun McCann, director of the leukaemia and bone marrow transplant units at St James's Hospital, Dublin, and Dr Fred Jackson, consultant haematologist with the South Eastern Health Board.
The Minister said yesterday that he had completed a "wide-ranging consultation process" in recent days in advance of the appointment of a chairman and other board members. "I will continue to invest in the IBTS to ensure that it is in a position to develop as a transfusion service in line with the best international standards," he said.
He also acknowledged the "major contribution" Prof Barker had made to the work of the IBTS.
The chief executive of the IBTS, Mr Martin Hynes, welcomed the appointment.
pomorain@irish-times.ie