Archives: Teams

Mr Birthistle is retired following 40 years service in the Irish public healthcare system including 20 years as a hospital Chief Executive. Prior to his retirement he served as Chief Executive of St. James’s Hospital, Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospital. He was previously Chief Executive of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin and St. Luke’s Hospital in Rathgar. He is a graduate of the National College of Industrial Relations and Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Cuddihy has 37 years of experience as a GP, having founded a practice in Greystones in 1987. Dr Cuddihy has a special interest in end of life care, sparked by a teaching session for trainee GPs which was addressed by Dr John McCarthy of Our Lady’s Hospice in 1986. Since then he has attempted to bring quality end of life care to his patients throughout his career.

Early on in his career in Wicklow, through the auspices of the local Bray Clinical Society, Dr. Cuddihy advocated for the appointment of the first Palliative Care nurses in the county and subsequently brought together a number of people who were keen that Wicklow patients would experience the same quality of end of life care as patients across the county border in South Dublin. As such, the Wicklow Hospice Foundation emerged and a group of volunteers grew a large campaign which culminated in the opening of Wicklow Hospice in 2020. Dr Cuddihy was chair of this group for the first nine years of the campaign.

Aside from medical matters he has been involved in Sports medicine throughout his career and has served on numerous boards, at club and county level, of the GAA.For 18 years Dr Cuddihy has been a voluntary medical officer with the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes.

Vincent Barton is a specialist advisor in Healthcare Strategy. He was previously Managing Director at Prospectus Consulting, who specialise in the Health and Life Sciences field. With Prospectus Vincent worked on over 400 commissions for a wide range of clients, largely in the Health and Social Care sectors.

Prior to his career in healthcare advisory, Vincent worked in the Department of Health and Children for two decades. In addition, he also served two terms with the Department of Foreign Affairs at Ireland’s representation to the EU in Brussels, where he was Health Attaché during the Irish Presidency. He has lectured on Health Policy at Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and the Smurfit School of Business, UCD.

Formerly a Board member of St James’ Hospital, the Coombe Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Tallaght Hospital Development Board, Vincent is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Paris.

Dr. Philip Wiehe, MB BCh R.S.C.I. Graduated from RCSI in 1980. Completed self-structured GP training in 1985. Was GP Training programme director (UCD – Mid Leinster) from 2003 to 2011 and GP Trainer from 2013. Retired from practice in 2022.

Cathy Maguire is a Senior Counsel specialising in employment and trade union law. She is a member of the editorial board of the Employment Law Report and Irish Employment Law Journal and was chair of the Employment Bar Association 2016 – 2018. She has published a number of text books on employment and trade union law and lectures in trade union law in the King’s Inns and Law Society.

Hilary is recently retired as Head of Health Sector with Bank of Ireland where she was responsible for developing and overseeing the Bank’s strategy for lending to the sector. She has over 30 years senior clinical and executive national and international experience in the health and regulatory sectors and 10 years in the financial services sector. In these roles she had a particular focus on risk, quality and patient safety.

She originally worked as a Healthcare Assistant in Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross before qualifying as a nurse from St Vincent’s University Hospital and working in a variety of clinical and executive roles including Director of Nursing. Hilary has an MBA from Smurfit Business School and post graduate qualifications in Healthcare Management, Corporate Governance, Risk Management and Executive Coaching. Recent roles include Head of Health Sector at Bank of Ireland, Head of Healthcare Regulation in HIQA, Patient Safety Advisor to the World Health Organization and Academic Programme Director in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Currently a Board Member at St James’s Hospital where she chairs the Board’s Quality, Safety and Risk Committee, she was previously Chairperson and Board Member of the Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare and Board Member of the European Society for Quality in Healthcare.

Dermot Ryan has significant experience as a senior civil and public servant in a diverse range of roles. His most recent role was as an Assistant Secretary General, in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY). This role included governance and performance, including of state agencies, corporate functions, encompassing budgetary negotiation and oversight of the Vote, internal and external HR, ICT and procurement.

He has broad experience in:

• financial control, budgetary reporting, corporate governance, audit and risk;
•  delivering on all aspects of strategy, policy and legislation through formulation, drafting and implementation/enactment;
• the design, implementation of change management systems and leading organisations through policy, strategic and regulatory change measures;
• developing solution focused approaches to dealing with the significant challenges involved in dealing with competing stakeholder interests, both within civil/public service and also semi-state and private sectors;
• he has significant experience at the highest levels in negotiation and litigation at National and European levels and is experienced in dealing with media and communication challenges.

He was the first CEO of the Health Insurance Authority, the regulator of private health insurance in Ireland. Mr. Ryan has held Board membership on a number of statutory and non-statutory Boards, including audit, risk and finance board committees.

Dermot is a graduate of UCD and Trinity College Dublin and has completed executive programmes at the JFK School of Government, Harvard; the Said Business School, Oxford University; Smurfit Business School UCD, Roffey Park Institute.