Tony Holohan says he was unfairly treated during controversy over botched move to TCD

The State’s former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan believes he was unfairly treated during the controversy over his botched move to Trinity College Dublin which led to his resignation.

In his memoir, to be published this week, Dr Holohan outlines how he came up with the idea of moving to TCD to work in public health leadership, during which he would be seconded from the Department of Health.

However, when the secondment arrangement emerged, it caused a political firestorm and the plan disintegrated after then taoiseach Micheál Martin indicated it should be paused, leading Dr Holohan to resign.

In the book, Dr Holohan outlines how he developed the idea and discussed it with Robert Watt, the current general of the Department of Health, and Martin Fraser, then the secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach.

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“Through these conversations, I was assured that there would be support for me to be seconded,” he writes in his memoir, We Need to Talk. “I had all the support I needed from both Martin and Robert. I had no reason to believe it would be anything other than a straightforward matter to progress.

“I was informed and believed that all the necessary briefings of people who needed to be aware, particularly the minister, had taken place. From my point of view, we were where we needed to be … everything was in place. Until it wasn’t.”

He outlines that the then minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, was “less conversant with the details” than he had believed and how “inadequate communication” meant the news “caught people on the hop”.

Dr Holohan is also sharply critical of leaks from a report into the matter, including to The Irish Times. He says excerpts from the report were “being leaked in advance of publication and ‘spun’ to create damage for me and to unfairly shift responsibility to me for what had happened”.

Regarding a finding in the report that he was “exclusively personally involved in the negotiation of research funding” linked to the secondment, he says there are no facts in the report to support the conclusion.

While he says he is unsure of whether the author of the report believed whether he was, he argues this was reported in a way which suggested he was negotiating funding levels. “That interpretation of the conclusion in the report is completely false and without foundation,” he says.

“In all of this, the question arises – do I believe that I received fair treatment in the overall handling of my proposed secondment, subsequent report and related commentary? No, I don’t,” writing that “there was a failure to inform and clear it with the relevant people”.

On Covid-19, Dr Holohan’s also targets the Government in his book over its decision to reopen hospitality ahead of Christmas 2020. He writes that a return to pre-pandemic level of socialisation was “directly related to the failure to curb hospitality” which “sent the wrong signal”.

With more than 1,500 deaths in January 2021 – the single worst month during the pandemic – Dr Holohan writes that he “still cannot understand why pubs and restaurants were allowed to remain open over that Christmas despite the clear Nphet advice”.

He adds: “I cannot say that all of the deaths in January 2021 could have been prevented. But I think we should have prevented a lot more of them.”

A scoping report, as well as a proposal for a Covid-19 inquiry, has gone to the three Coalition leaders. A senior source said terms of reference are expected to go to the Cabinet in October and would be broad ranging – encompassing the public-health response, the economic impact and the consequences of school closures, and deferred healthcare.

Two sources insisted the inquiry would be non-confrontational. It is unclear at this point whether it will be operated on a statutory basis and what associated powers it would have, but some in the Government believe it could operate on a non-statutory basis.

Over the weekend, Opposition politicians called for clarity on the status of the inquiry into the State’s handling of Covid. Labour health spokesman Duncan Smith said: “We need a thorough and holistic inquiry. The Government cannot afford to let this drift.”

Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane called for a “proper inquiry that isn’t a witch hunt, but one that establishes the facts”.

A Government statement said it was intended the inquiry would be established in 2023.

It said a “comprehensive evaluation of how the country managed Covid-19 will provide an opportunity to learn lessons from our experiences in dealing with a pandemic”.

“It will include a review of the whole-of-government response to the pandemic and how we might do better and be in a stronger position if another pandemic or other similar type event were to occur. It will include a consideration of the health service response covering hospitals, the community and nursing homes, along with the wider economic and social response.”

The statement said the exact format the inquiry would take was currently under consideration.