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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for a “pause” and “reassessment” around the planned secondment of Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College before the Government receives a report on the process next week.
Speaking in Helsinki, Mr Martin said there must be transparency around the move.
“I’ve asked the Minister for Health for the full report on the entire process that led up to this appointment and the Minister has asked the secretary general of the Department of Health for that report.
“There seems to be have been a number of strands to this, in respect of a research strand. We all understand the merit in creating additional capacity to create a research platform around pandemic preparedness, given the experiences that we’ve had over the last two years.
“Clearly the CMO [chief medical officer] was in a very pivotal position in that regard. But there has to be transparency. There has to be good process and procedure. I don’t see this as just a human resource issue or a personnel issue in its own right, which I can understand.
“In officialdom that would be one perspective, but there is a research perspective to this, there is a more medium term perspective to this. And in my view, there should be a pause, there be a reassessment as to how the objectives that are behind this can be realized in a better and more transparent way. The report will come in a number of days.”
The chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform John McGuinness has said that Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath will be asked before the committee to answer questions on the secondment of Dr Holohan.
Mr McGuinness on Friday spoke of his “serious concerns” about how the secondment of Dr Holohan to Trinity College Dublin was handled by Mr Watt.
“It is quite a mess within the department. It shows a certain dysfunction within the department and we need to clarify it,” Mr McGuinness told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland programme.
“I have serious concerns about how the department reached the decision in relation to all of this and also the fact that the Minister (for Health) was not informed. Minister McGrath was not informed.
“There is still a lot of questions as to how this position was created was funded. Why there was so much secrecy around it. Why the department refused to answer questions from the very beginning.”
Dr Holohan announced last month he was stepping down from his position as CMO to take on the new role at Trinity College Dublin.
He will remain a civil servant and his €187,000 a year salary will be paid by the Department of Health. A private meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health yesterday heard that Mr Watt signed off on the controversial secondment of Mr Holohan to a role at Trinity College Dublin.
Mr McGuinness said that every secretary general has a responsibility to appear before Oireachtas committees.
“Mr Watt will be asked after the Easter recess but during the recess we will be making arrangements for that to happen. And Minister McGrath will also be asked before the committee. And indeed if the Minister of Health had a role in this well we will need to know what that is too.
“But this cannot continue in terms of the management of any department. The Minister must be informed and there are certain guidelines and so on that need to be followed relative to appointments like this.”
Earlier this week Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told RTÉ Radio that Dr Holohan’s new role of professor of public health strategy and leadership at Trinity College Dublin as a “really positive move” which he fully supports.
On Thursday, Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer called for “accountability and transparency” in relation to Dr Tony Holohan’s new role.
Mr Buttimer told the Claire Byrne Show on RTÉ Radio 1, that the handling of the situation by the Department of Health has been “absolutely appalling”.
“Tony Holohan has given the State huge service and we thank him for that. It is not personal. But this is about accountability and transparency.
“From my understanding there is a board of management in the Department (of Health) that are the executive of the running of the Department and I find it unbelievable that the Minister for Health wasn’t told until Tuesday (that the Holohan post was a secondment).
“Why was that the case number one? Why didn’t the secretary general tell his Minister? And thirdly why now at the beginning were we not told that this is a secondment?”
Mr Buttimer said that it was assumed that the position of CMO was being advertised because Tony Holohan was retiring.
“And then we discover it is a secondment. Then this morning we discover we are going to work in collaboration with the head of research with the universities which we all think is a great idea. But clarity is required on the process.
“Who authorised it? Was the job advertised? Why are Trinity College not paying the salary of a person who is now not going back to the job? It is not a secondment. We need to know why this wasn’t communicated in the manner it should have been to the Taoiseach and the Minister.”