First things first: the appointment of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan to an academic post in Trinity College, leading research into how to deliver the best policies and practices for public health, is a good idea.
Dr Holohan has done more than his fair share at the front line during the Covid pandemic. His desire to transfer to a less intensive academic role is understandable and should be productive and beneficial to the State. Although he should not have a role in examining the performance of the Department of Health during the pandemic, he is clearly in an ideal position to lead research and plot improvements in pandemic preparedness, and in general public health policy.
All the more reason, then, for the appointment to be handled with care, transparency and rigour. And for an administration that has endured repeated controversies over high-level appointments, there was an obvious political requirement for everything to be done in a way that politicians could publicly stand over.
Alas, no. A partial announcement did not describe the full circumstances of the appointment, nor the fact that the salary was to be paid by the Department of Health. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was not apprised of the details; initially described as a "secondment", Dr Holohan then admitted he would not be returning to his old job at any stage.
Predictably, controversy has followed, as always happens when ministers find themselves scuttling for facts and running for cover. Within Government, there is barely concealed anger at the mess, with much of its directed at the secretary general of the Department of Health Robert Watt, himself the centre of a controversy about his own appointment to that role and who signed off on this appointment. In an unusual move, the Taoiseach yesterday expressed his unhappiness and said that the move should be "paused". It remains to be seen when it will be unpaused. But for an administration faced with enormous challenges, the Coalition has quite a knack of creating unnecessary problems for itself.