Message from Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport.
When the Health Management Institute was established 75 years ago, the world was emerging from the second world war and Ireland, like many countries, was still grappling with the epidemics of polio and tuberculosis. It was also the year that the first Department of Health was established and the year of the foundational Health Act 1947.
I look back on these eventful start-up years only because the Health Management Institute is emerging from an equally tumultuous period in our public health history. In the same way that Irish healthcare workers eradicated polio and tuberculosis in the 1950s, with an effective vaccination programme, we have all been able to move on from Covid largely because of the resilience and selflessness of our healthcare workers, and again, the roll-out of a world-class vaccination programme.
As you look ahead to your next 75 years, we are all facing another healthcare challenge. If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, climate change and related poorer health outcomes for people will undoubtedly follow. Based on your history, however, I have confidence that the healthcare management profession in Ireland will rise to this challenge also, by continuing to lead on the critical actions within the health sector needed to help mitigate climate change, while protecting the staff you support and lessening the burden of diseases on the patients you care for.
