Healing hands
29 August 2010 By Susan Mitchell Cathal Magee
AGE: 57
APPEARANCE: sharply-dressed corporate figure
NEWSWORTHINESS: he takes over as chief executive of the Health Service Executive this week
‘The two most important criteria that the public will use to judge our success will be safety and patient experience.
Then the only question is, ‘Are the public health services safer, and are services revolving around my needs?’.”
These were the words of Cathal Magee’s predecessor as chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Professor Brendan Drumm.
The words still ring true, although Magee will hope to leave a different legacy to that of Drumm.
The Cavan-born father of four takes over the top job at the HSE this week.
Health consumes 27 per cent of government spending, and Magee faces a gargantuan challenge.
Chief among them will be boosting staff morale, which is at an all time low.
He will have to deal with a myriad of unions representing more than 100,000 staff.
Restoring public confidence in an organisation which is often perceived as overly bureaucratic, bloated and dysfunctional is another task.
That same organisation has been rocked by a number of hospital care scandals, and has been beset with industrial relations difficulties and budgetary shortfalls.
Hospital consultants are deeply unhappy with the impact of their contract, while many nurses are opposed to the Croke Park deal, which provides for the redeployment of staff within a 45-kilometre radius.
Magee will have about €2 billion less to spend than Drumm. Right now, the impact that will have on the ground is most evident in the HSE West, where proposed measures to make €90 million in savings will lead to service cuts and significant job losses.
The cuts in the west will be of particular interest to Magee, as that was where he landed his first job out of school with the North Western Health Board in Sligo.
He started out in finance with the board and spent a number of years in different roles before heading staff relations.
He moved into the private sector working as human resources director with Bord na Móna during a period of major restructuring between 1988 and 1992.
He did a stint with National Australia Bank before moving to Britain to take a job in HR and change management with Yorkshire Bank in Leeds.
Magee was headhunted for the position of group HR director at Eircom, and spent 15 years in various senior management roles.
He headed its retail arm from 2002 and filled the role as acting chief executive, until former Vodafone Ireland chief executive Paul Donovan was appointed in July 2009.There was some surprise when Donovan’s name was announced, as many had expected Magee to land the job.
‘‘He has to have been disappointed not to have got the top job at Eircom,” said a friend and former colleague. ‘‘He had held a lot of senior roles, but he had never been chief executive. Personally, I think that is why he went for the HSE job.”
He was well remunerated at Eircom. ‘‘He is certainly not doing the HSE job for the money,” said a friend. ‘‘He is independently wealthy and he would certainly have three or four million in his arse pocket.”
Magee’s associates say he has a strong public sector ethos. ‘‘He is under no illusion that he will get any thanks for what he plans to do. But he sees it as a big business challenge - and would like to get the HSE into better shape,” said Gerry O’Sullivan, a director of Q4 PR, who did some work for Magee when he was trying to repel the Australian takeover of Eircom.
An associate who worked with Magee during his time in the health service described how Magee always maintained a keen interest in the sector. ‘‘Every time we met, he would ask me about the health service.
He was always interested,” he said.
Pat McLoughlin, president of the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (Icos), said: ‘‘I am delighted he took it.
‘‘He is an ideal candidate, he has knowledge of the sector and has a lot of experience in implementing change in highly unionised environments,” said McLoughlin, who has held senior management positions in the health service. ‘‘He has also reduced back office costs in highly competitive environments - and that will be needed in health.”
Magee is best known for his senior management roles in Eircom - which changed hands five times in less than a decade - as well as for negotiating a major restructuring plan with the unions in his final year that resulted in 1,200 job cuts.
‘‘A lot of the media coverage so far has focused on his time at Eircom. I think his biggest achievement was at Bord na Móna.
There was no strike, at a time when there were lots of strikes,” said a former senior HSE official.
Bord na Mo¤ na was radically restructured during the period while it was headed by then chief executive Eddie O’Connor.
The HSE is beset with industrial relations issues.
Magee has a good track record with the public sector unions - although some claim he was overly generous to Eircom employees, and that the state lost out financially.
Either way, his experience in implementing change was part of the attraction for the HSE board. It is widely accepted that the HSE is bloated with administrators.
The problem is that most of the fat is in middle management, and they are costly to axe.
‘‘There is a huge level of expectation in that respect.
There is a credibility issue there as well. But if he can’t do it, nobody can,” said the former senior HSE official.
Unions are looking forward to the new guard.
Relations with Drumm and his team were described as tense.
Some senior union officials believe that some of Drumm’s closest advisers were over-critical of trade unions.
Those same advisers were unpopular on a number of levels.
Their hefty fees received extensive media attention, and it created a rift between Drumm and the HSE board. Board members believed Drumm had created a two-tier management structure and had alienated himself from top management.
Magee will not be appointing advisers. Associates said he was averse to the type of dual management structure that prevailed. ‘‘He is of the view that you are either on the management team, or you are not,” said one associate.
That may well be the case, but unlike Drumm’s salary, Magee’s €322,000 contract actually makes no provision for performance related bonuses or for the hiring of advisers.
The recruitment embargo will make it more difficult for Magee to expand and enhance the existing management team, although he will have some scope.
The HSE has yet to appoint a director of operations, and two senior positions - national director of integrated services and national director of reconfiguration - are interim appointments.
Magee was described by various individuals who know him as ‘‘down to earth’’, ‘‘honest’’, ‘‘hard-working’’, ‘‘modest’’ and ‘‘personable’’.
He spent his early years in Belturbet, Cavan. His father was a farmer and his mother was a housewife.
He was one of five children - four boys and girl.
Magee’s family moved to Kill, just outside Cootehill, when he was about eight or nine.
He attended the local national school before moving to St Patrick’s College in Cavan where he won a scholarship.
He has described himself as a good, solid student to friends, but was possibly more passionate about sport.
He played Gaelic football for Kill and soccer with Cootehill Harps.
He remains a keen sporting enthusiast and enjoys watching GAA, football and rugby. He supports Manchester United, and is friendly with former Republic of Ireland football manager Brian Kerr.
He occasionally plays golf and is a member of the exclusive Powerscourt Golf Club in Enniskerry. He and his family lived in Enniskerry for a number of years, but bought a site in Kilmacanogue in Co Wicklow, where they now live.
Magee was a keen actor in his 20s and is a big Samuel Beckett fan. He acted in a number of plays and with groups including the Dublin Shakespeare Society, and Club Players. Friends said he joined drama groups wherever he went. He has won a number of acting awards.
‘‘I think he may even have considered doing it professionally. He was certainly good enough,” said one friend. He remains a regular theatre goer.
Magee met his wife, Rosaleen - who is from Michigan - at a theatre festival in the US. They live with their four children - two boys and two girls - who range in age from nine to 19. His wife’s family have strong Leitrim roots.
Magee completed a four-year business management degree at the Irish Management Institute and also has a Masters in Organisational Behaviour from Trinity College Dublin.
He was appointed to a number of boards, including the VHI and the EBS, but resigned when he was appointed HSE chief executive.
On the day his appointment was announced, it was also reported that the state had to pour €875 million into the EBS - where he was a former director.
Magee would probably like to erase this episode from his copybook.
He was chairman of the risk committee that assessed loans. At the society’s agm, an angry shareholder questioned why Magee had not resigned in light of the lending decisions taken by the society.
Magee said that, while he and the other directors had considered their positions, continuity was important. In 2007,while he was on the board of the EBS, confidential memos surfaced which revealed that Magee had claimed he was ‘‘corporately bullied’’ at the building society.
Magee said his difficulties began when he challenged the executive handling of key business agendas, including executive remuneration.
Magee later said that matters were resolved to his satisfaction. Magee was a patron of the Special Olympics.
Less is known about his involvement with the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.
He sat on the board of the organisation - which is devoted to peace building and reconciliation in Ireland, Britain and beyond - for a number of years.
That experience may prove more useful than he might have ever imagined.
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