Health Service Executive

The Health Service Executive (HSE) (Irish: Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005.

The current director-general is Bernard Gloster, who took up the new role on 6 March 2023, after Paul Reid stepped down.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) was established by the Health Act 2004 and came into official operation on 1 January 2005. It replaced the ten regional Health Boards, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and a number of other different agencies and organisations. The Minister for Health retained overall responsibility for the Executive in Government. The HSE adopted a regional structure (HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster, HSE Dublin North East, HSE South and HSE West).

A new grouping of hospitals was announced by the Irish Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly TD, in May 2013, as part of a restructure of Irish public hospitals and a goal of delivering better patient care:

A new arrangement of 90 primary care networks was announced in October 2014.

On 4 April 2022, it was announced that the chief operations officer of the HSE – Anne O'Connor – would be leaving the organisation in the summer to take up a new role as managing director of VHI Health and Wellbeing.

On 27 June 2022, it was announced that the current director general of the HSE – Paul Reid – would be stepping down from his role in December to 'spend more time with family'.

On 16 August 2022, it was announced that the director general – Paul Reid – would be leaving on 3 October 2022, two months earlier than planned. His role was temporarily filled by the current chief financial officer – Stephen Mulvany. On 16 December 2022, the HSE announced the appointment of Bernard Gloster, former CEO of TUSLA Child and Family Agency, as the new director general of the HSE.