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Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has described Dr Tony Holohan's new role as Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) as a "really positive move" which he fully supports.
Dr Holohan announced last month he would be stepping down from his position as chief medical officer (CMO) to take on the new role. He will remain a civil servant and his €187,000-a-year salary will be paid by the Department of Health.
Mr Donnelly said that Dr Holohan will be leading up research at TCD on what is going to be one of the most important areas in healthcare for years to come.
He said that regardless of whether TCD or the Department of Health funds the salary of Dr Holohan, “it is all public money”.
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General secretary of the Department of Health Robert Watt said Dr Holohan is leaving the department on a contract of indefinite duration and will not be returning as chief medical officer.
A new CMO will be appointed on a permanent basis based on an open competition through the Top Level Appointments Committee process, he told the Oireachtas health committee.
Pressed by TDs for further information, Mr Watt said, “I’m not really here to talk about this here today”, and pointed out the Taoiseach has answered questions on the matter. He agreed to provide the committee with further written details of the appointment.
Mr Donnelly told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the Department of Health plans to fund Dr Holohan's role in TCD because the Department, and the country, is going to benefit "very greatly" out of this.
He said Dr Holohan would be "leading national research on pandemic preparedness", a role he is "uniquely qualified" for, and would be "organising collaborations across universities with the World Health Organisation and with the EU".
“Ultimately the winners out of this are the State in that we have someone with his experience who can lead this,” Mr Donnelly said.
Secondment
Mr Donnelly said he did not sign off on the move as it is a secondment and there are “secondments across the public sector all the time”, but he was made aware it would happen and he fully supports it.
“Tony was looking for a new challenge,” he said. “We are very lucky to have him leading this research. It is what the Asian countries did after SARS. And from this we are going to be as prepared as possible for another pandemic.”
Mr Donnelly said he wasn’t sure if there were others within the Department of Health who were working within universities and having their salary paid by the Department.
“But there are plenty of people working in the Department of Health who have been seconded in from different parts of the public sector and indeed there are Department of Health officials who are working in other departments in the public sector. So that is quite normal.”
He stressed that a move to a university wasn’t “that different”.
“We have consultants that the HSE fund in universities all the time. There is a very close collaboration between healthcare and academia. For all the obvious reasons.
“Tony is going to be involved now in helping educate future public health leaders. We have consultants in many hospitals throughout the country who have academic posts who are involved in research, who are involved in training new clinicians. So there is very close linkage between healthcare and academia in Ireland and all around the world.”
Nature of arrangement
Asked why the nature of the arrangement wasn’t made clear when the appointment was announced, Mr Donnelly admitted this was a “fair enough” point but he emphasised that what was important was the nature of the role and research which is to be undertaken by Dr Holohan.
He rejected suggestions that the Department will be in effect paying for two CMOs.
“I think this is important that we have absolute clarity. There is one chief medical officer and there will be one chief medical officer,” he said.
“Let’s say the Department were to pay or Trinity were to pay or they were to pay some each – it’s all public money. It is a tax payer-funded post.”
Mr Donnelly said Dr Holohan would not be paid any more money.