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Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan has decided not to proceed with his secondment to Trinity College Dublin and will retire from July instead, he said in a statement on Saturday.
The appointment has sparked controversy since it emerged that it was intended that Dr Holohan leave on an open-ended secondment, an arrangement which is usually time bound in the civil service.
“I have decided not to proceed with my secondment as Professor of Public Health Leadership and Strategy, Trinity College Dublin. I intend to retire as CMO with effect from 1 July to allow the Department of Health sufficient time to advance the process of appointing my successor.”
“I do not wish to see the controversy of the last few days continuing. In particular, I wish to avoid any further unnecessary distraction that this has caused to our senior politicians and civil servants.
“My strong belief is that this was a significant opportunity to work with the university sector to develop much needed public health capacity and leadership for the future. In this regard, I would like to thank Trinity College and the Provost for their foresight and support in establishing this role.
“Following my departure, I look forward to sharing my knowledge and expertise outside of the public service.”
Dr Holohan had been due to take up a role as professor of public health strategy and leadership at Trinity College Dublin in July. Sources on Friday said the secondment element was agreed recently.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin paused the process on Friday in advance of a report being compiled by Mr Watt on the sequence of events leading up to the appointment.
Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Linda Doyle, said in a statement on Saturday: “This is a huge loss for Ireland’s education sector, and for all the students who would have learned so much from Dr Holohan’s experience.”
The nature and funding for the role have caused a backlash, with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and other senior politicians critical of the process underpinning the appointment.
The question of who would fund the role has caused controversy with Trinity saying last week the post would be funded by the Department of Health. If the appointment had gone ahead as planned Dr Holohan’s €187,000 a year salary would have been paid by the Department of Health.
The State’s top civil servant was aware that Dr Tony Holohan was considering leaving the Department of Health for months before it became public or Ministers were told,.
The chief medical officer raised a possible move into academia as long as six months ago with Robert Watt, the secretary general of the Department of Health, and Martin Fraser, the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach.
The Department of the Taoiseach confirmed on Friday that Mr Fraser had “a number of confidential conversations with the CMO about his future plan” in the context of their working relationship during the pandemic.
Minister for Health
On Saturday Sinn Fein Chief Whip Padraig MacLochlainn claimed the most worrying aspect of controversy surrounding the secondment is that the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has “lost control of his Department.”
Deputy McLochlain told Saturday with Katie Hannon, on RTE Radio 1, that it “took the Taoiseach to pause the so called secondment.”
“It should have been the Minister for Health even though he admitted he wasn’t privy to the decision.”
Mr McLochlainn says ultimately the whole secondment issue has made people question who is running the country.
“We have a situation where they are calling this a secondment. This is a great pity because the appointment would have been welcome. It would have been very beneficial for those who are training up to be our future leaders in the health service.
“But they called it a secondment. It clearly isn’t a secondment. They put a€30,000 additional salary in place above what professors expect to get paid at Trinity. Everything about this just points to nobody learning from the mistakes of recent times. Nobody being accountable.”
Meanwhile, Roisin Shortall Social Democrats co-leader told the show that it wasn’t the only occasion where the current Department of Health, Secretary General, Robert Watt had “overstepped the mark.”
Ms Shortall said that if she ever moved in to the position of Minister of Health there would have to be a “change in attitude.”
Ms Shortall said that it the role in TCD for Dr Holohan was a “good post” and that she didn’t have a problem with the job per se. However, she added that the handling of the appointment was ‘disgraceful.’