Julianstown resident is Libya's health minister

The new Minister for Health in Libya is east Meath resident Dr Fatima Hamroush, who has returned to her homeland to take up her new position. Dr Hamroush (53), who has been a consultant ophthalmologist in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda since 2000, left Ireland for Libya at the weekend before taking the oath of office there on Monday. Speaking from her 'second home' in Julianstown last Wednesday, she said she was under no illusions about the challenges that lie ahead of her, the main one being corruption, which was rampant. As a result, there is also some degree of personal risk involved. "I know I am taking a risk, we all are. I know there are some who would like to see me there; I am known by being completely against corruption, I can't tolerate corruption," she said. However, there will also be those who will not be as welcoming and she believes that all of the new transitional government will be apprehensive about what awaits them. "No-one going there will be feeling confident that (they) will be safe. We are building something new from everything around us that is a big mess," Dr Hamroush added. "There are lots of people who were involved in corruption who are portraying themselves as saints, as people who are patriotic but are not (who) had to do with a great deal of corruption in the country." She said the transitional government "is not going to build the country but is going to set the foundations for the country to be built on. We are going to clean out the dirt that is there. It is not an easy job cleaning the dirt because a lot (of people) will go to courts and a lot will end up in jail and a lot will be exposed," she said. Dr Hamroush was born in Benghazi and her father was jailed for three years by Colonel Gadaffi's forces in 1969. She came to Ireland with her four children - Abdulah (25), Fouz (24), Omar (22) and Farah (17) - because, "the human rights abuse was getting worse. I didn't want to leave the country but wanted to take a break from that. I knew my post-grad would take about four years and, by then, I would know if the country (Libya) would be better or worse." Things did not improve and she remained in Ireland and secured a permanent position here; she has worked as a medical ophthalmologist in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and also worked at the Mater and Beaumont Hospitals in Dublin. She used to return to Libya but stopped in 2006 when her true identity as someone who was using the internet to tell the world what was really going on there became known to Gadaffi's forces. She is a director of Irish-Libyan Emergency Aid and has been active as a letter-writer, highlighting the human rights abuses. She said she felt she could not turn down the opportunity to be part of the new transitional government. "I couldn't refuse it; it would be like a soldier refusing to go to the battlefield," she added.