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The report by Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt into the appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College is understood to contradict the Taoiseach’s view it was not a “personnel issue” that did not require political approval.
Speaking on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said emphatically that the proposed secondment of the chief medical officer to Trinity to head up a new research programme was not a personnel matter.
“People might have seen this as a personnel issue in the first instance,” Mr Martin said. “But it’s clear to me now that it’s broader than that in terms of what was envisaged around the research proposals involving universities and so forth.
“Anything that involves the spending of public money or any substantive multi-annual programme of research is a policy issue that does require approval by government,” he said, adding that there was a need for “transparency from the outset.”
However, the report on the issue submitted by Mr Watt on Monday to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is understood to argue that the now abandoned secondment was a staffing and personnel issue that did not require ministerial or political approval - thus putting Mr Watt’s view directly at odds with the view of the Taoiseach.
A spokesman for Mr Donnelly did not respond when asked if the Minister shared the view of the Taoiseach or his secretary general.
Dr Holohan said at the weekend he would not be proceeding with his secondment to Trinity and will retire from July.
Sources with knowledge of the affair say that the research programme to be headed up by Dr Holohan would have cost some €2 million a year, or €20 million over 10 years.
Asked on Tuesday morning if he had read Mr Watt’s report, Mr Martin said he had a “quick look” at it on Monday evening but would have a deeper look at it before discussing it with his Cabinet colleagues. He said that the report would be published.
Asked if it was true the establishment of the chair of Public Health Strategy would have €2 million per annum, he did not directly address the question but said the funding for the position would eventually have come through the Health Research Bureau.
“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.” Dr Holohan’s €187,000 salary would have come from this funding, he said.
He also confirmed that Dr Holohan will chair the recently established successor group to Nphet until his retirement in July.
Asked if he was disappointed that lessons 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 the Zappone controversy.