Eilish hardiman biography of christopher

Eilísh Hardiman, Grit Board Member and Chief Executive at Children’s Health Ireland

Please tell us a little about yourself and your role as Chief Executive of Children’s Health Ireland?

Originally from Galway, I’m married to Steve and living in Dublin for almost three decades and importantly, I’m Mum to twins, Emily and Lucca who are 18 years old.

I’m Chief Executive of Children’s Health Ireland since 2013.

Asked why she had not informed her successor about the report during the handover of the CEO function, Ms Hardiman said that “a lot of the issues in the report had been addressed”.

She said the report was confidential and “never intended to be shared”.

It’s my 3rd Chief Executive role in healthcare, albeit, the most challenging one to date. Enjoy, network and learn.

Websites:

Follow us:

Share this:

Ms Hardiman, who had been at the head of CHI since its inception, left her role after then health minister Stephen Donnelly last year declined to approve her retention for a third five-year term, amid a year of controversy at the organisation.

She was subsequently retained in a new strategic role at CHI and continued to receive an equivalent salary of at least €177,000 to that she had received as chief executive.

Under questioning from the committee’s new vice-chair Paul McAuliffe, CHI’s new chief executive Lucy Stewart repeatedly said she was “not trying to be evasive” in not answering questions regarding the settlement, as it both preceded her own time at CHI and is also the subject of a non-disclosure agreement.

Mr McAuliffe disputed this, saying while the settlement itself may be confidential, the board decision and rationale to approve it should not be.

“I’m at a loss to know why there was a need to enter into discussions at the end of a fixed-term period if there was to be no new appointment,” he said.

“If it was a fixed-term contract, why did a liability result?” he asked.

I have over 30 years’ experience in acute academic health services, with 20 of these in senior management.

Children’s Health Ireland is the merged entity of three children’s hospitals in Dublin, and it commenced in Jan 2019. She said she was "not at liberty to discuss” the matter.

She did expand on why the board had chosen to retain Ms Hardiman in her new role of strategic programme director, saying the board had felt the change in leadership was coming at “a critical time” for CHI, and it would be “important to retain the knowledge” of the previous chief executive.

Ms Stewart had begun her testimony at the hearing by professing the organisation to be “deeply and unreservedly sorry” for some children having had non-medical devices inserted into their bodies during spinal surgery, adding “what happened should not have happened and children should have been protected from harm”.

Separately, chief officer of the National Paedriatic Health Development Board David Gunning gave a firm “no” when asked if he had faith in the main contractor for the delivery of Ireland’s €2.2bn National Children’s Hospital.

The PAC heard Bam was now working towards its 15th new completion timeline for the marquee hospital project, with the current best-case scenario for that completion being September 30 of this year.

However, Mr Gunning said he had received a new programme of works on the project from Bam on Wednesday evening, which is currently being “interrogated” to understand what impact it would have on timelines.

He said of €800m worth of claims made by Bam with regard to extensions of time to the project, the National Paedriatic Health Development Board — which holds overall statutory responsibility for the construction of the hospital — accepts the contractor was entitled to just €50m of those.

One outstanding claim has seen Bam told by a conciliator it is owed €122.2m by the board over “critical delay events” relating to the build, a figure which has been disputed by the board and which has since been escalated to the High Court by the contractor.

Mr Gunning, asked if he understood the anger of the public regarding the repeated delays to the hospital build, said “our frustration and anger is equivalent, I can absolutely assure you”.

Addressing the issue at the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday morning, Ms Hardiman acknowledged that the terms of the settlement which saw her appointed as strategic programme director at CHI last year on an equivalent salary to the CEO of €184,000 are subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

She conceded that she had never raised the matter with the Medical Council, something Ms Nugent has done recently on two occasions.

When asked why the matter had not been raised with the gardaí, as it had been by the HSE, Ms Nugent said she did not believe that the threshold for escalating matters in that fashion had been reached, adding that she did not believe the funds of the NTPF had been misused with regard to what had transpired.

“The issues were known to management and had been raised with the HSE. What’s most important is that it was raised through the proper channels,” Ms Hardiman said.

Why did we spend public money on this? We work with paediatric colleagues and services across the regions to support care closest to the child’s home.

Currently our services are in four locations in Dublin and the majority of these will transfer to the new children’s hospital, currently under construction.

Our new children’s hospital is the largest capital investment by Government, it’s planned and designed to be ‘born digital’ with advanced technology and 100% single rooms planned around the care and treatment of children and families.

Children’s Health Ireland is an academic health sciences entity with multiple academic partners committed to integrated services, education, training, research and innovation in paediatrics and child health.

What does diversity, equity and inclusion mean to you and why is it so important?

Diversity, equity and inclusion means having a mind-set, behaviours, practices and organisational processes that respects and supports patients, families, staff and others with diverse skills, traits, backgrounds and circumstances.

Respect and integrity are two of our core values in Children’s Health Ireland.

However, she insisted: “I have nothing to hide."

She said she could not waive the terms of that NDA in order to address the matter further at the PAC as two other people were also involved in the agreement and would also have to waive their right to confidentiality.

Then minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, ruled that Ms Hardiman’s contract should not be renewed in late 2023 amid the fallout from several scandals at CHI, including the insertion of non-medical grade springs into the spines of children during surgery and the alleged carrying out of unnecessary hip dysplasia surgeries on other children.

Ms Hardiman said that she had retained legal counsel when it became clear her contract would not be renewed due to “an employment law matter”, that being that she was entitled to a contract of indefinite duration as she had worked two separate five-year contracts as the head of CHI.

The committee heard that the legal cost of the mediation talks between Ms Hardiman and CHI which led to her re-appointment in the alternate role amounted to €123,000 after tax, and that bill had been footed by the Chief State Solicitor’s Office.

2021 report

CHI’s new chief executive Lucy Nugent said that “in hindsight” the organisation should have informed both the Comptroller and Auditor General and the NTPF about a 2021 report into issues surrounding waiting list management, including the fact that a consultant had allegedly referred public patients to his own private weekend clinics.

She said, however, that the first she had heard about the report was when she received a media query regarding same in May of this year from the Sunday Times.

Why did a settlement arise?

Ms Stewart said she “wasn’t there” when the decision was made. We provide all national paediatric specialities, some on an all-island basis and secondary acute paediatric services for the Eastern region of Ireland. When we value diversity, equity and inclusion we are putting these values into action.

As Chief Executive how have you promoted gender equality in the workplace?

Using the ‘if she can’t see it, she can’t be it’ principle and starting with the Board of Children’s Health Ireland, I have worked with the Board Chair and the Governance and Nominations Committee to recruit Board membership that reflects gender equally.

Forty five percent of the Board membership in 2023 are female.

Currently, 50% of the Executive Team in Children’s Health Ireland are female.

This gender balance is reflected down through the organisation.