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The Taoiseach said he would discuss with Cabinet colleagues , the report by Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt on the circumstances of the secondment of Dr Tony Holohan
Micheál Martin said he had a “quick look” at the report on Monday evening but would have a deeper look at it on Tuesday and then discuss it with his Cabinet colleagues. He said that the report would be published.
Dr Holohan was appointed as Professor of Public Health Strategy at TCD on March 25th and announced on the same day he was stepping down as chief medical officer. However, over the weekend, Dr Holohan announced he would not take up the TCD role but would retire from the department on July 1st.
“People know the respect that I have for Dr Holohan which goes back over a long number of years. I find the entire situation that we are in regrettable. I believe there should have been more transparency about this from the outset.
“It is clear that the funding was to come from the Department of Health through to the Health Research Board, out of which the salary (of €187,000 per annum) would have been paid.”
He also confirmed that Dr Holohan will chair the recently established successor group to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) until his retirement in July.
He added that people had developed concepts around research projects which in themselves were not necessarily wrong.
“I think what should happen in terms of any major research proposal is that it should be considered by government as a whole,” he said.
Asked if he was disappointed that lesson were not learned from the episode surrounding the proposed appointment of Katherine Zappone to a UN envoy role, Mr Martin said that all cases were different and that this particular situation was not germane to Ms Zappone’s appointment.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly only learned on April 5th that he would continue to remain a Department of Health employee on a salary of €187,000 per annum. While he had no intention of returning to the role, his transfer was described as an “open-ended secondment”.
Following the disclosure, Mr artin announced that the appointment would be “paused” pending a report on the matter compiled by Mr Watt.
Mr Watt is understood to be the official who sanctioned the transfer of Dr Holohan to TCD on March 25th, following consultation about the new position between senior officials, including Dr Holohan, and senior figures in the university.