It is with profound sadness that we learned of the sudden death of our beloved Chairperson, colleague and friend, Professor Pat O’Mahony last month.

As we publish our Corporate Plan 2025-2027 this week, developed under Pat’s leadership and vision, it is fitting that we reflect, as an organisation, on his stewardship of the work of HIQA.

Pat served as Chairperson of HIQA’s Board since 2018. Under his leadership, the organisation went through significant change as HIQA’s legal remit and role expanded. In that time, we commenced the regulation of facilities that undertake medical exposure to ionising radiation, and took on new regulatory roles including in the areas of international protection and in private hospitals. 

We extended our remit in the areas of health technology assessment to provide evidence to support policy-making in the Department of Health, and the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) became a function of HIQA. We were also asked to take on the role of the Competent Authority for Critical Entities Resilience and, at the request of the Minister for Health, we conducted critical statutory reviews and investigations into key issues.  

Pat advocated strongly for close collaboration and strategic engagement with key stakeholders, whether with government departments, colleagues in the health and regulatory sectors or service users to ensure that we were informed by best practice but also by the lived experiences of people using services. His passion for keeping people at the centre of all that we do was central to his leadership approach. 

He reiterated the importance in us remaining agile in responding to where we were needed across the health and social care sector so that we continued to be effective and to have a real impact through our work.
 

Pat did not shy away from HIQA taking on new challenges, instead he ensured that we were fit to do so, whether through additional resources, skillset or knowledge. This was most evident in encouraging us to invest in both our people and our systems.

He took a deep interest in ensuring that we have the digital and data capabilities required to enable us to take on new functions, optimise our research and critically evaluate our effectiveness. He spearheaded the development of a new digital strategy to support the digitisation of the organisation. He also promoted a focus on our own culture, to ensure that as an organisation we were listening and responding to our own people. 

As an organisation that rapidly grew during the COVID-19 pandemic when remote working was essential, Pat supported us to ensure we continued to instil a positive and enabling organisational culture that promotes excellence while also continuing to attract, develop, promote and retain high calibre and committed staff. 

Pat advocated for the importance of HIQA remaining relevant, while never losing sight of what we were founded to do – ensure safer, better care for people. This recognition of the importance of humanity is embodied in our values and Pat championed this through the values embodied in the two Corporate Plans developed during his time with HIQA. 

When I became CEO of HIQA in 2022, Pat was a mentor, a valued ballast and a trusted sounding board on complex, and sometimes wicked, problems that confronted the organisation. He was also a trusted friend. His extensive experience, his political judgment, calm demeanour and humanity always guided his advice and support. One of his legendary pieces of advice was to adopt a “sophisticated approach” to complex issues which meant using influence and negotiation skills, building alliances and deploying a little bit of Kerry guile to solving problems.

He was always generous in sharing his time, wisdom and experience. Many of our staff and Board members have said in recent weeks that Pat took the time to speak with them and to get to know them, ensuring that people felt recognised for the work that they do. That genuine warmth and encouragement is a huge part of his legacy.

On behalf of HIQA, I wish to express our sincere condolences to the O’Mahony family on their loss. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and former colleagues.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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ANGELA FITZGERALD

HIQA Chief Executive