Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
8 November/December
Part One: Ó’Tuathail and Bowes
and a Community not-for-
profi t.
“What is your home address?”.
C
HAY BOWES recently went back to col-
lee to study for a master’s deree in
strateic studies. He’s had a success-
ful but frustratin career in our health
services and tells me he’s “always
been interested in a disciplined and strateic
approach to the public interest and public ser-
vices”. Failures in these areas have led him to
tell his shockin story.
After school in Dublin, Bowes joined the army
medical corps in 1988 and trained as a para-
medic. From 1993 he worked as a phlebotomist
in St James’s Hospital in Dublin, drawing blood.
He says he was very aware of a systemic pattern
of too many people entering and staying in the
hospital when they would have been better o
at home: “The fi nancial and clinical benefi ts
are well known. Research shows up to 30% of
patients would be better at home. It’s an idea
whose time has long come”.
But, according to Bowes, “Hospitals are insti-
tutions and institutions do not lightly shed their
historic functions”. The government’s overarch-
“Leo always
delivers”
by Michael Smith
WhatsApp correspondence shows Varadkar
transferred confi dential IMO contract to rival
medical organisation, a crime under the
Offi cial Secrets Act and maybe under the
Corruption Act, carrying a penalty of up to
10 years in jail and prohibition from offi ce
NEWS
ing health policy Sláintecare, at least aspiration-
ally, prioritises this shift.
He says one of the most impressive people he
encountered in Medicine was Gerry Mac Elvaney,
a Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons and
then in Beaumont Hospital, who had worked
in Walter Reed Hospital, the saviours of Trump!
Bowes approached him and the two of them
pioneered moving the care of patients out of
hospitals into the Community in 2004 through a
company called Tara Healthcare. It became a no-
table commercial success so after a successful
HSE contract ran its course and the HSE stopped
funding it for its own reasons, the VHI, seeing a
good thing, bought them out.
He says “We did okay out of that and I became
CEO of the new company, VHI Hospital@home,
the clinical care arm of Ireland’s largest health
insurer”. He says he reluctantly left the VHI in
2011 and pursued other non-related interests for
six years.
By 2017 Bowes’ appetite for the healthcare
sector had returned and, with healthcare entre-
preneur Neil Pope, he set up another company
to again bring back the idea of Community Care.
It was called Community Hospital Ireland (CHI).
This was to be a not-for-profi t company with all
proceeds being ploughed back into the Commu-
nity to prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes.
The proposal seemed initially to have broad in-
stitutional support within the State and clinical
“Leo always
Bowes Blows Whistle
Insider Chay Bowes blows the
whistle on how a doctor befriend-
ed Leo Varadkar and boasted
how Varadkar illegally leaked him
valuable con dential information
about IMO negotiations; and how
vested interests subvert the com-
mon good in public, as opposed to
private, healthcare.
VILLAGE GETS ACCESS TO INSIDER TROVE OF WHATSAPP MESSAGES.
November/December 9
leaders. Leo Varadkar, as Taoiseach, supported
it. His Private Secretary wrote to Bowes in July
2018 stating: “Your proposal aligns with the Gov-
ernment’s intention”.
Bowes was looking for partners, especially in
the GP sector. So he strategically approached
Maitiú (Matt) Ó’Tuathail who was then the
29-year-old president of the National Associa-
tion of General Practitioners (NAGP) allegedly
representing 2000 GPs, in competition with the
larger, famously well-funded and more general-
ist Irish Medical Organisation [IMO].
There was bad blood. The NAGP was radical,
dynamic, younger. According to a recent article
in Medical Independent. “The NAGP quickly es-
tablished itself as very media-friendly, with regu-
lar press releases, strong spokespeople, and a
number of high-profi le campaigns”.
It was challenging for the IMO. The NAGP
needed to poach members from its rival. To do
this required it to call the IMO to account for ne-
glecting to represent General Practice.
The di erent agendas of the competing rep-
resentative bodies came to a fl ashpoint when
Varadkar’s government excluded the insurgent
NAGP from the most crucial discussions a ect-
ing GPs in a generation. The IMO declined to of-
fer Village a view on the relationship at the time.
These were over the agreement on GP Con-
tractual Reform and Service Development and
the IMO claimed rights as the long-established
senior body to the role of sole negotiator - to
the dismay of the NAGP whose members’ liveli-
hoods too depended on the outcome.
On March 2 2015 the Irish Times ran a story
headlined ‘Doctors’ union says exclusion from
GP contract talks is “Stalinist”’. The NAGP was
spitting mad:
“The NAGP has urged its members not to
sign up to any proposals for the provision of
free care to under-sixes and described it as
‘misguided, inequitable and unworkable’.
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar told the
Sunday Business Post: ‘The Department
remains willing to engage with the NAGP
but given (the NAGP’s) stated position that
government’s policy on extending GP care
without fees is immoral, and their call for a
boycott. It is hard to see any real basis for
Leo Varadkar, his partner Matt Barrett, his friend Matt Ó’Tuathail and
others take time out in photographs forwarded by Ó’Tuathail to Bowes
Matt Ó’Tuathail is a well-meaning, progressive
and talented individual who has been doing
his best for the health system and particularly
highlighting the demise of general practice. He
is also now developing a high public profi le as a
trusted opinion-former, including on Covid.
“engaged for a number of days each week for
the past three months with the Department and
the HSE”, the insurgent NAGP organised a press
conference and a protest, subverting the nego-
tiations.
Dr Andy Jordan, NAGP chairperson, was un-
dermining the IMO insisting not just that the cuts
needed to be fully reversed but that there was
a need for increased funding of €400 million to
€500 million in order to make general practice
sustainable.
All in all, to Bowes, as of April 2019, Ó’Tuathail,
with all this savvy and passion, seemed like a
dynamic and open force in the health sector. In
the end it turned out he brought too much politi-
cal baggage.
Ó’Tuathail liked the idea of Community Hospi-
tal Ireland.
It was a noble idea and Ó’Tuathail felt he could
help push it to the government. “I can get this
in front of Leo and Simon”, he told Bowes. “He
showed me text messages from Leo Varadkar,
then Taoiseach.
Bowes says: “For some reason he sent me
photos [below] of Leo, Leo’s partner Matt Barrett
(who is a youthful cardiology consultant in Denis
O’Brien’s Beacon Hospital) and Ó’Tuathail social-
ising - sometimes knocking back pints - together.
This was a guy with connections”.
Bowes says that Connemara-born Matt
Ó’Tuathail is a well-meaning and talented in-
partnership at this time. For these reasons
a memorandum with the IMO has been
signed’.
‘Obviously we no longer live in a demo-
cratic society. In the Stalinist-style state we
now live in, if you question Government pol-
icy, your views are silenced by any means
possible’, said the organisation’s chief ex-
ecutive Chris Goodey.
‘The Minister has come up with one sham
reason after another to justify this discrimi-
nation against our members. He has fi nally
admitted that the real reason we are being
excluded is that we have refused to be bul-
lied into accepting a policy that is driven
by political need rather than the common
good’”.
The IMO and NAGP were enaed in an
institutional knife fi ht.
By 2018-19 it was being reported that the draft
negotiated by the IMO was addressing the cen-
tral issues for GPs of reversal of the €210 million
in long-standing ‘FEMPI’ cuts and preparation
for the overarching new health strategy, Sláin-
tecare.
The NAGP needed to steal some of the IMO’s
thunder, disrupt its self-gratulatory smugness.
Against this background on 6 February 2019,
just as the IMO was saying its talks with govern-
ment were getting “intensive” and the Medical
Independent reported that the IMO had been
10 November/December
The ‘NAGP inner sanctum’ WhatsApp messages show the NAGP saw the contract, whose
provenance they were very excited about, as an opportunity to “steal the IMO’s self-
congratulatory thunder”, “the real deal” and something that “must not leak”
This WhatsApp exchange,
with Varadkar’s writing on
it, shows the agreement
between State authorities
and the IMO was confi dential
and that Ó’Tuathail wanted
Bowes to know that Varadkar
delivered to him, even if it
was improper. It shows the
other members of the NAGP
Inner Sanctum did not know
where the document came
from and that Ó’Tuathail
kept his source confi dential
from them. Though not from
Bowes!
This WhatsApp exchange between members
of the ‘NAGP Inner Sanctum’, shows they
knew they were improperly getting a
‘confi dential’ document.
Varadkar was sending them ammunition
that they could fi re in dealing with the most
important issue addressed by the NAGP since
its foundation.
If there were any doubt that
the leak came from Varadkar
this WhatsApp exchange
between Varadkar and
Ó’Tuathail dispels it.
Why was Varadkar
sending a confi dential
document to someone
so indiscreet that,
after Bowes suggested
progressive overhaul
of Direct Provision
he’d say the Taoiseach
couldn’t give a fuck
about refugees?
*
*Redacted by Village
November/December 11
corruptly obtaining a gi , consideration or
advantage for himself or herself or for any
other person, shall be guilty of an o ence.
2) An Irish o cial who uses con dential infor-
mation obtained in the course of his or her
o ce, employment, position or business for
the purpose of corruptly obtaining a gi , con-
sideration or advantage for himself or herself
or for any other person shall be guilty of an
o ence.
A TD guilty of an o ence under section 7 is liable
if convicted on indictment, to
(i) a ne
ii) imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10
years.
If it is (i) in the interests of justice, and ii) in
the interests of maintaining or restoring public
con dence in the public administration of the
State, the court may make an order prohibiting
the person from seeking to hold or occupy any
o ce, position or employment as an Irish o -
cial.
Clearly corruption in this context requires:
a) obtaining an advantage for another person
[O’Tuathail/the NAGP]. The reaction of the
NAGP ‘inner sanctum’ shows they clearly
knew they were getting an advantage.
b) that the act was for the purpose of corruptly
obtaining the advantage [emphasis added].
Corruption, according to Acts like the Pre-
vention of Corruption (Amendment) Act
2010 includes acting with an improper pur-
pose personally.
Now this is trickier.
Ó’Tuathail has become a ubiquitous commen-
tator on the politics of healthcare, particularly
Covid 19. So how does he use his infl uence?
Ó’Tuathail is a Varadkar cheerleader.
For example on one of the most important is-
sues for the current Tánaiste - whether the gov-
ernment should follow NPHET’s advice, an issue
where Varadkar has put his head on the block
by aggressive subversion of NPHET – Ó’Tuathail
has been a slavish campaigner for adherence to
NPHET’s advice – until...Varadkar challenged the
advice.
So, the day before Varadkar’s intervention
subverting NPHET on Claire Byrne Live Ó’Tuathail
tweeted “let’s remember NPHET aren’t doing
this to be popular. NPHET aren’t doing this to be
liked. NPHET are doing this to SAVE LIVES. They
have to balance the information and the data
they have with our health services capacity to
deal with it. SIN É”.
dividual who has been doing his best for the
health system and particularly in highlighting
the demise of general practice. He has a record
of working on medical initiatives to help the
worst o in society.
Ó’Tuathail is also now developing a high pub-
lic profi le as a trusted opinion-former, including
on Covid. He recently produced a video which
went viral proving that masks don’t divert oxy-
gen. You may recall him from videos on the Irish
Independent’s website (“Dr Matt answers your
Covid concerns”) or the Tonight Show on Virgin
Media, and recently - increasingly - on RTÉ televi-
sion and radio.
Part Two: O’Tuathail and
Varadkar break the law
Bowes says Ó’Tuathail “has become an in-
sider, though he has been brave in criticising the
government including Simon Harris. But he does
like to ingratiate himself”.
To illustrate this Bowes showed me some
messages [previous page, top right] in which
Ó’Tuathail makes some ill-advised comments
on refugees and attributes a lack of interest in
them to Varadkar with whom, remember, he was
o ering to intercede. Bowes says it was obvious
to him that Varadkar showed extraordinary lack
of judgement by forwarding these messages to,
and perhaps by even befriending, O’Tuathail with
his weakness for self-aggrandising indiscretion.
Varadkar Breaks Law
Certainly the least appropriate thing Ó’Tuathail
did was to share with Bowes that Varadkar, who
these days has a reputation as ‘Leo the Leak’,
had forwarded him the draft confi dential nego-
tiated contract referred to above even though,
shockingly, it was marked “CONFIDENTIAL - RE-
STRICTED CIRCULATION” [Left]. Bowes supplies
evidence of this which we amply display [previ-
ous page].
Bowes declares: “I was dumbfounded that a
friend of the then Taoiseach was claiming such
professional closeness to him that, to advance
the position of his mate and his mate’s organisa-
tion, he would improperly forward him potential-
ly explosive confi dential documentation”. The
Tánaiste failed to reply to a request or comments
on this forwarding.
Ó’Tuathail wanted Bowes to know how the
NAGP knew the information was hot, “confi -
dential”, possibly “robbed”. In fact Varadkar’s
crime was not stealing but under the O cial
Secrets Act and perhaps under section 7 of the
Criminal Justice (Corruption O ences) Act 2018.
The Law
So the O cial Secrets Act 1963 provides in
Section 4: (1) A person shall not communicate
any o cial information [de ned as any…docu-
ment or information which is secret or con den-
tial or is expressed to be either and which is or
has been in the possession, custody or control
of a holder of a public o ce, or to which he has
had access, by virtue of his o ce] to any other
person unless he is duly authorised to do so or
does so in the course of and in accordance with
his duties as the holder of a public o ce or
when it is his duty in the interest of the state to
communicate it .
Section 13 provides that a person who con-
travenes or attempts to contravene any provi-
sion of this act shall be guilty of an o ence and
shall be triable summarily and liable to a ne
not exceeding 100 pounds or to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding six months or to both.
The Corruption Act provides in Section 7:
(1) An Irish o cial [which includes a member
of Dáil Éireann] who, either directly or indi-
rectly, by himself or herself or with another
person, does an act in relation to his or her
o ce, employment, position or business for
the purpose of
And it there were any doubt that
Ó’Tuathail had the document this
WhatsApp exchange where he claims
“Varadkar always delivers” dispels it.
Clearly corruption in this context requires:
obtaining an advantage for another person
[O’Tuathail]. The reaction of the NAGP ‘inner
sanctum’ shows they clearly knew they
were getting an advantage.
12 November/December
information which is not in the public domain,
or information obtained in condence in the
course of their ocial duties, for personal gain
or the personal gain of others”. Under the Oce
Holders’ Code of Conduct 2003, which specifi
-
cally covers the Taoiseach, (at 1.5) Oce holders
“should respect condences entrusted to them
in the course of their ocial duties”.
It is also a breach of data protection legisla
-
tion.
The leader of the law and order party, Fine
Gael, could face a range of actions, judicial and
other: no proper purpose was served by this par
-
ticular leak. In other sectors, including the finan-
cial and planning sectors, if such a favour had
been done, resignation would be swift.
Varadkar has been criminally unwise.
Part Three: Demise of NAGP
Things were moving ahead for Bowes and
Ó’Tuathail: “One evening Matt met me in the
Orchard Inn in Rathfarnham at my request to
discuss a proposal I had for him. I wanted all
his GPs to be part of this move away from hos
-
pitals. He said: ‘The organisation I am part of is
dysfunctional. There is money washing around. I
only just found out. Will you do an observation
-
al report on it and then we can parachute you in
as the CEO?’”. Bowes says he initially suggested
commercialising NAGP, making it a hybrid – a
union that is commercial – would give it more
power at the negotiating table. He said he would
do the report.
The NAGP chief executive was Chris Goodey
who had a background in medical publishing.
Bowes, with his background in healthcare busi
-
ness, quickly found there was no accounting sys-
tem. “Nobody knew where the money had gone.
It had an unwieldy council. Its governance was
terrible. It was getting over €200,000 in sub
-
scriptions annually but it owed the revenue circa
€200,000 though for some reason the normally
inflexible Revenue were holding o”.
Bowes continues: “I did the report which
documented wholesale impropriety. Actually
I didn’t charge a fee. Some begrudgers in the
NAGP alleged I was trying to take over the sector.
The Fraud Squad – the Garda National Economic
Bureau - was called in after I did the report. I rec
-
ommended winding up the company which was
insolvent. The Council resigned”.
It went into liquidation “owing €400,000 and
blaming the government, and adverse publicity
around the report”.
Susan Mitchell did a big exposé in the Sunday
Business Post.
When she worked in the Sunday Business Post
she did some paid podcast work for the IMO.
None of this was ever declared to readers.
Mitchell is now chief advisor to the Minister for
Yet the very next day, with no change in cir
-
cumstances, Newstalk’s website indicates
Ó’Tuathail gave an interview to the ‘Hard Shoul
-
der’ in which he said that the Cabinet’s refusal to
move to level five is “the first time we’ve actually
seen the government govern”.
To an impartial observer this might seem like
Health.
“Goodey was taking out cash and spending
it in casinos and on trips to Paris. He’d taken
€140,000 in cash. He had a credit card. He had
a company car. He had six phones”.
Remember this is the body to whose head
Varadkar was illegally forwarding confidential
information.
From lifting the lid on the NAGP Bowes says
his worst suspicions about the distortive
dysfunctionality of self-serving private medicine
in Ireland were confirmed. But he had a little to
learn about the nexus between private medicine
and the subversion of public medicine.
Part Four: O’Brien and Sullivan
revealed as private-sector
champions
Feeling confident, Bowes approached the
former head of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, for advice.
O’Brien was markedly equivocal.
Bowes says:
“I wanted his help as to how we could
navigate the public-procurement process. Then
Neil Pope and I were told by Tony O’ Brien that
nobody would be interested in a not for profit,
that people in the HSE would be sceptical of
something that might not be professional.
O’Brien advised us to get it changed into a for-
profit. In the interest of full disclosure he told me
he was advising somebody who was looking to
build a hospital but he didn’t say who.
Bowes said that Matt Ó’Tuathail was
supportive and well-connected politically.
After Tony O Brien Suggested Dean Sullivan
(his ex-deputy Director) as the best point
of contact within the HSE, Bowes and Pope
approached him and were invited to pitch the
CHI concept to Sullivan and his team.
After a long and detailed meeting Sullivan
asked Bowes and Pope for a detailed and
fully costed implementation plan within two
weeks, with a view to the plan being rolled
out at short notice, Bowes and Pope were led
to believe that their concept was about to be
adopted and executed by the HSE.
Subsequently Sullivan who was fully aware
that Matt Ó’Tuathail was promoting the CHI
concept contacted Ó’Tuathail and asked him
to a meeting.
Sullivan was negative towards the CHI
concept and Ó’Tuathail warned Bowes that
Sullivan seemed unnaturally well disposed to
Vanguard Health Services International (VHSI),
an operation controlled by Audrey McDonnell
[See Profile p14]. He went as far as to suggest
“there’s definitely a link between Dean and
VHSI” [below] Soon after, ÓTuathail shared a
private message with Bowes, extraordinarily
showing Sullivan suggesting that ÓTuathail
contact Audrey McDonnell [below right].
Sullivan must have known this would be
Exposé
of NAGP
a potential quid pro quo for Varadkar – “the cor-
rupt obtaining of an advantage”. At the time of
writing – again mirroring Varadkar – Ó’Tuathail
had reverted to his long-standing support for ad
-
herence to NPHET’s advice.
Ó’Tuathail is also something of a facilitator for
Varadkar. When the Irish Independent revealed
then-Taoiseach Varadkar had heroically reverted
to his role as doctor in scrubs, it was Ó’Tuathail
who somehow was on site to photograph the
hero for them. He had facilitated this important
placement, and indeed the associated PR oppor
-
tunity, with medical service provider, Safetynet.
If such an apparent exchange of favours is not
corrupt it is certainly improper. It is an actionable
breach of the IMO’s confidence.
Moreover, it is a breach of the Ethics Acts un
-
der which there are codes for both Dáil mem-
bers and oce-holders such as a Taoiseach. The
codes are both admissible in court proceedings.
According to the Dáil members’ Code of Con
-
duct 2002: “Members must not use ocial
November/December 13
While McDonnell and VHSI continue
negotiating with Dean Sullivan and the HSE for
lucrative HSE contracts, Bowes has yet to receive
a response on CHI’s proposal. It’s actually as if
CHI never existed to the HSE.
Astoundingly, an ex CEO of the HSE was ad-
vising Bowes’ not-for-profi t Community Hospi-
tal Ireland to abandon its public focused ethos
while also, unknown to Bowes, advising McDon-
nell’s murky VHSI, Which was also competing
for community based services but on a for profi t
basis. Furthermore, O’Brien referred Bowes to
Dean Sullivan who it seems has an at best inap-
propriate relationship with McDonnell’s VHCI.
And after all that, the HSE did not get back
to Bowes and his partner about their proposal.
“I wanted to make a real change in the health
system but now I think we can best get real
change by exposing the incestuousness”, says
Bowes.
“Community Hospital Ireland is dead, killed
by the incestuous tentacles of the avaricious
Irish private-health sector. I explored how I
could most e ectively expose the hypocrisies.
I was working with Paddy Cosgrave on other
initiatives. Ultimately he put me in touch with
Village. I have insights to share”.
compromising for ÓTuathail as the NAGP
was endorsing the CHI model. This also
tends to corroborate Bowes claim that
McDonnell later claimed that Sullivan was
her “special advisor”. Even though Bowes’
pitch to Sullivan was confi dential, tellingly,
McDonnell had been fully aware of it and that
- worst still for Bowes - it was never going to
be adopted.
Village has seen correspondence from Neil
Pope, Founder and Joint CEO with Bowes of Com-
munity Hospital Ireland, to Tony O’Brien [and
Chay Bowes] in January 2019 thanking him for
attending a meeting and making an “extremely
helpful” contribution.
Tony O’Brien writes acknowledging: “Clearly
there is now some focus on what part I might
play in this endeavor [sic]. We should discuss
that at some point soon”.
They agree to meet and book a room for four
hours in the o ces of EY and agree an elaborate
agenda:
A freedom of information request was sent to
the HSE but perhaps unsurprisingly, despite the
defi nitive evidence shown here to the contrary
[above], Dean Sullivan’s o ce denies any record
of Community Hospital Ireland or meeting with
Bowes and Neil Pope as its promoters.
According to the HSE, “The record concerned
does not exist or cannot be found after all
reasonable steps to ascertain its whereabouts
have been taken”.
Why was the Strategy Director
of the HSE privately directing a
doctor, who wanted to pursue
a medical initiative through
the public sector, towards a
dubiously-positioned creature of
the private sector?
Text from Dean Sullivan of
HSE to O’Tuathail advising
he should get in touch
with Audrey McDonnell:
a strange approach for a
public-sector servant.
WhatsApp message from
O’Tuathail warning Bowes of
the inapproriate link between
Vanguard/VHSI and Dean
Sullivan.
“Community Hospital
Ireland is dead, killed by
the incestuous tentacles
of the avaricious Irish
private-health sector. I
explored how I could most
effectively expose the
hypocrisies.
This confi rms that a meeting was
set up between the backers of
Community Hospital Ireland and
Dean Sullivan.
14 November/December
A
udrey McDonnell has been CEO for four
years of Vanguard Health Services In-
ternational (VHSI), a company that in
McDonnell’s words “aims to revolutionise how
healthcare is delivered in Ireland”. McDonnell’s
healthcare career has traversed the public and
private over the last two decades, with stints in
Britain’s NHS, the London boroughs of Barking
and Dagenham, the Councils of Thurrock and
Islington, as well as private companies Diversi-
fi ed Health and Social Care Options and Pas-
sage Healthcare.
McDonnell is an insider, well-positioned with
Fine Gael, who manages to survive without the
benefi t of many of the usual supports such as a
board of directors, fi nancial controller, obvious
funding, obvious sources of funding, or staff .
VHSI’s fl agship project is its planned Day
Hospital at Airside in Swords, County Dublin,
just north of the airport. The company has re-
ceived planning permission in January 2020
for the hospital on a site it doesn’t own, hav-
ing received the OK to apply
from the landowner, Octo-
ber Investment’s Niall Law-
less. VHSI says the project
will be delivered with a €50
million investment - though
the company has allegedly
experienced funding issues
with previous healthcare
partnerships in the past two
years.
In July 2019, former Fine
Gael Health Minister, Sena-
tor James Reilly said that he
had been campaigning for
two years for VHSI’s hospi-
tal in Swords, in the Fingal
constituency he once repre-
sented during his time in the
Dá il and cabinet.
While Health Minister in
2012 Reilly, in had prom-
ised the construction of a
public primary-care centre
in Swords, which has yet to
be delivered.
Now he had turned to
publicly campaigning for a private facil-
ity.
In January 2019 he published a video of him-
self endorsing the hospital, saying that “the
Pro le: Audrey McDonnell: Ubiquitous Private-Sector
Healthcare Revolutionary
people of Fingal deserve
it”. He said he’d “led the
campaign for a proposed
new hospital at Swords Airside Retail Park”.
Reilly wasn’t the only Fine Gael member en-
dorsing the hospital. In November 2019 Leo
Varadkar, then Taoiseach, joined Reilly and lo-
cal Councillor Tom O’Leary for a photo opportu-
nity promoting the development in the Clayton
Hotel. Alongside Varadkar, Reilly and O’Leary
in the photographs [overleaf] on the day were
PA Consulting’s Andrew Dowie, VHSI chief ex-
ecutive Audrey McDonnell and McDonnell’s
partner, Keith Purvis, formerly of PA Consulting
himself. Big shots in the world of healthcare
politics and strategy.
According to VHSI’s website, its “philosophy
is to bring value-based healthcare to patients
and funders and to work collaboratively with
public and private healthcare providers and
funders”. Audrey McDonnell has said the com-
pany will seek HSE contracts, but local Labour
councillor Duncan Smith, speaking to the Fin-
gal Independent in August 2019, has warned
his constituents not to be fooled by the com-
pany’s plans.
“This is a private com-
pany, wishing to build a
private hospital, on pri-
vate land and who view
the HSE as a client. Their
model would have the HSE
purchase their services
on behalf of HSE patients.
This model aids the con-
tinued privatisation and
outsourcing of our health
service. This is a time when
we need to strengthen and
invest in our public health
services”, he said.
The story of the VHSI
hospital in Swords is em-
blematic of the relentless
and insidious privatisation
of healthcare in Ireland.
The story of McDonnell,
Tony O’Brien and Dean
Sullivan. And indeed Leo
Varadkar.
McDonnell has been
open about VHSI seeking
contracts with the HSE and has been
in regular contact with the organisa-
tion’s Chief Strategy O cer, Dean
Sullivan, to this end.
Audrey
McDonnell
WhatsApp message from O’Tuathail
warning Bowes of the inapproriate
link between Vanguard/VHSI and
Dean Sullivan.
Why was the Strategy
Director of the HSE
privately directing a
doctor, who wanted to
pursue a medical initiative
through the public sector,
towards a dubiously-
positioned creature of the
private sector?
Text from Dean Sullivan of
HSE to O’Tuathail advising
he should get in touch
with Audrey McDonnell:
a strange approach for a
public-sector servant.
