Tony Holohan says he will not take TCD role and is to retire as CMO in July

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan has decided not to proceed with his secondment to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and will retire from July instead, he said in a statement on Saturday.

The appointment to the TCD role 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 July 1st 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.

Doug Beattie condemns ‘mindless idiots’ who placed noose on election poster

---

Zelenskiy address: No pomp or frills, just a direct and uncompromising message

---

Irish people more satisfied with their democracy than most EU states, survey finds

---

Changes to triple-lock defence protocol not ‘a big priority’, Coveney says

---

“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 said in a statement.

Dr Holohan had been due to take up the 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 Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt on the sequence of events leading up to the appointment, saying there must be “transparency” around 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 of 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 decision by Department of Health officials not to disclose to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly that the role was a secondment has also been criticised.

That disclosure raised further questions about who authorised the secondment, and the decision to keep paying Dr Holohan’s salary, and why neither the Minister nor Mr Martin was informed about the arrangement until the matter was on the verge of becoming public this week.

Serious questions

Responding to Dr Holohan’s announcement, Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane said the Minister for Health and the secretary general of his department had “serious questions to answer around the processes involved” in Dr Holohan being appointed to TCD.

“It is disappointing that this position, which was a good news story, has become overshadowed by concerns of a lack of transparency around the nature of the position and how it is funded,” Mr Cullinane said.

“Many questions around this controversy remain unanswered. The secretary general and the Minister for Health must be upfront and transparent about how these circumstances came about,” he said.

Social Democrats health spokeswoman Róisín Shortall said it was hugely regrettable that Dr Holohan “was dragged into a political controversy of the Department of Health’s creation and is now leaving the public service”. She was also critical of the Minister for Health, whom she said had “lost control” of his department.

“All of the expertise and skill that Dr Holohan developed, throughout the pandemic, will now be lost to the public service – and, indeed, future generations of medics who would have benefited from Dr Holohan’s knowledge as a professor.

“The Government failed to learn the lessons of the Katherine Zappone [special envoy] debacle, regarding making public appointments, and has now made a complete mess of what should have been a relatively straightforward process. When will the penny drop that there must be transparency when public appointments are being made?”

Labour’s health spokesperson Duncan Smith said the “very avoidable controversy” pointed to “a clear and deep dysfunctionality at the top of our health service”, with ”no transparency” over the appointment process for Dr Holohan’s new role. “There must be real scrutiny over how our senior civil servant leaders in our health service are operating and ultimately held to account.”

Aware

The State’s then top civil servant was aware that Dr 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 Mr Watt 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.