Watt report on Holohan secondment understood to contradict Taoiseach

The report by secretary general of the Department of Health Robert Watt into the appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College is understood to contradict the Taoiseach’s view that the appointment was not a “personnel issue” that did not require political approval.

Significant unease remains around Government about the differences between the Taoiseach, some ministers and Mr Watt on the issue, with an Oireachtas committee expected to hold hearings on the issue after Easter.

Speaking on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said emphatically that the proposed secondment of Chief Medical Officer Dr Holohan 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”.

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“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 to the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly yesterday is understood to argue that the proposed Honohan 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 declined to say if the Minister shared the view of the Taoiseach or of his secretary general. He said that Mr Donnelly would comment when the report was published.

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.

It’s also understood that Mr Watt’s report says that the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach Martin Fraser was briefed on the proposed move.

The controversy is set to continue as the chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee John McGuinness said that the committee would asked the senior civil servants involved, and potentially the ministers, to attend when the Dail returns after Easter.

Asked yesterday morning if he had read Mr Watt’s report, Mr 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.

Asked if it was true that the establishment of the Chair of Public Health Strategy would have cost €2 million per annum over a 10 year period, 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, 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 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 the Government as a whole,” he said.