Holohan raised issues about report into TCD post during drafting stage

Former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan raised issues about a report into his abandoned secondment to Trinity College Dublin during its drafting stage.

The report, which was published on Monday, shows that Robert Watt, the top civil servant in the Department of Health, objected to parts of the report last June and sought to have them removed.

It is understood that Dr Holohan also raised issues as part of the process of finalising the report, whereby a draft version was shared with those mentioned.

The specific issues he flagged are not known, and it is also unclear to what extent if any changes were adopted as a result, as the detail is not included in the body of the report.

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Asked for comment, Dr Holohan told The Irish Times that he was asked to comment on a draft of the report by the reviewer and fed comments back to her in June of last year. Dr Holohan said on Monday he wrote to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly “some time ago” urging the conclusion and publication of the report.

The sharing of a draft for comments is a standard part of drafting reports such as this. The final version shows Mr Watt strongly objected to conclusions regarding politicians not being informed, according to an excerpt of his email sent to the report’s author – which shows he described them as “assertions based on factual inaccuracies and incorrect interpretations and they have no basis”.

He also argued that Deirdre Gillane, the Tánaiste’s chief of staff, had been informed of key details about the process – which Ms Gillane described in a letter to businesswoman and former head of the Institute of Directors Maura Quinn as “grossly inaccurate and unwarranted”.

[ Tony Holohan should not have been involved in aspects of TCD move, report finds ]

On Tuesday, Micheál Martin backed his adviser, saying “obviously I think her presentation cannot be questioned, it’s conclusive and of course I believe what she has said”.

The report concluded that substantial funding that had been proposed as part of the secondment – some €2 million a year – “bypassed all of the accepted protocols for research funding and was linked atypically to one named individual”. She found the decision as to how the figure was arrived at is “not based on any proposal nor costings”.

Documents submitted as part of the review show that the amount of funding doubled in the space of less than a month – with Dr Holohan telling Martin Fraser, the Secretary General to the Government, on February 24th last that he was proposing a “specific funding allocation of €1 million” be made available. By March 14th, a draft letter of intent underpinning the move included a provision for an annual ring-fenced allocation of €2 million a year.

Mr Watt and Dr Holohan later told Ms Quinn that the figure of €2 million was considered to provide “a serious statement of intent for TCD as to the department’s intent on the matter”.

Ms Quinn’s review outlines how the department told her that there are no copies of any correspondence between it and TCD pertaining to the discussions of the secondment and associated proposed funding. “All discussions were carried out by the chief medical officer with Trinity College Dublin through his personal email address, which is external to the Department of Health.”

On Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said lessons have to be learned from the abandoned move.

Mr Varadkar said recommendations from a report by the department regarding the appointment have been accepted by the Government while Mr Donnelly has written to Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe to “ensure that processes around secondments are clearly defined in future so that we don’t have a repeat of this”.

A spokesman for Mr Donnelly said he welcomed the report and that there can be a “lot of value” to secondments of senior officials into academia.

“The Minister believes the previous CMO could have added significant value, in academia, to the evolution of public health policy, leadership and pandemic preparedness. He believes that all parties involved in the proposed secondment acted in good faith, and with a view to strengthening Ireland’s public health capacity.”