Tony Holohan

Speaking in Helsinki this morning Taoiseach Micheál Martin put a pause on Dr Tony Holohan's appointment to a Professorship at Trinity College. He said there is ...

Speaking in Helsinki this morning Taoiseach Micheál Martin put a pause on Dr Tony Holohan’s appointment to a Professorship at Trinity College. Micheál Martin has requested a full report from the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who has asked head of the Department Robert Watt to report back in a few days. The Taoiseach has called on the secondment of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College to be paused pending a reassessment.

The Department of Health said in a statement that the decision was made 'at the highest level'

It is important to note that there is no change in remuneration or financial benefit accruing to Dr Holohan on foot of this arrangement." A statement from the Department said: "The Department, at a senior level made this decision in order to show innovation and lead by example. It is important that my successor feels fully empowered and enabled to undertake the role as they see fit.”

The Taoiseach has said there has to be greater transparency around the planned academic role for outgoing Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at Trinity ...

He said the Mr Watt will be asked after the Easter recess to appear before the committee and that Minister McGrath will also be asked before the committee and if the Minister for Health has had a role in this, the committee will explore that as well. I'm sure they were, but we want to be sure of that," he said. "We've had this before with the appointment of the Secretary General of the Department of Health, and indeed, the new Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, and the committee did meet and did issue a report with many recommendations which to date have been ignored". Mr McGuinness said it "shows a very poor performance in terms of management from the Secretary General of the Department [Robert Watt], and there are questions that need to be put to him and need to be clarified." He also said that it was "very much the role" of the Secretary General to look after personnel matters and there is a clear division of responsibility in government departments. Mr Vardkar said nobody in Government was happy about it because of how it reflects on them and said that both he and Minister Donnelly had made the "reasonable assumption" that a post had arisen in Trinity College and Dr Holohan has applied for it and got the role.

Varadkar says he had 'assumed' CMO applied for professor role in Trinity College Dublin.

And indeed if the Minister of Health had a role in this well we will need to know what that is too. “But this cannot continue in terms of the management of any department. The nature of how the appointment was made “could have been better handled quite frankly,” he said. “In officialdom that would be one perspective, but there is a research perspective to this, there is a more medium term perspective to this. And in my view, there should be a pause, there be a reassessment as to how the objectives that are behind this can be realized in a better and more transparent way. We all understand the merit in creating additional capacity to create a research platform around pandemic preparedness, given the experiences that we’ve had over the last two years.

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has this morning said that Dr Tony Holohan's secondment to Trinity College should be paused to allow for greater transparency.

“In my view, you know, it should be paused. There has to be good process and procedure. “There has to be transparency.

Micheál Martin said the appointment should wait until he receives a report from Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly on Monday.

He said the committee has “serious concerns” over the process of the appointment and that Mr Donnelly was not told. “The secretary-general is actually involved in personnel matters. I don’t see this as just a human resource issue, or a personnel issue in its own right, which I can understand.

Dr Tony Holohan confirmed on Thursday that he does not intend to return to the role of chief medical officer at any point in the future after taking up a new ...

Dr Holohan will not be attached to a single school or area of expertise. It is important that my successor feels fully empowered and enabled to undertake the role as they see fit,” he said. The Department of Health is understood to have first approached Trinity College Dublin over a potential role for Dr Tony Holohan at the university in recent months.

In his statement on Thursday, Dr Holohan said: “My secondment to Trinity College Dublin means I have agreed to relinquish my role as chief medical officer; it ...

Mr Donnelly argued on Wednesday that secondment in the public service was commonplace and Dr Holohan’s case was no different. He also hinted that the new role would form part of the work of the Department of Health in the future. It said it runs occasional open and competitive calls to allow higher-education institutions nominate people for research leader awards. It is important that my successor feels fully empowered and enabled to undertake the role as they see fit.” Who came up with this process and who signed off on it? Why was the Minister not informed?

Micheal Martin said that Dr Tony Holohan's job switch from CMO to academia has been put on hold pending a report from the Minister for Health.

“There's a more medium-term perspective to this and in my view, it should be paused, there should be a reassessment as to how the objectives that are behind this can be realised in a better and more transparent way. Speaking in Helsinki, in Finland, Mr Martin said: “I’ve asked the Minister for Health for a full report on the entire process that led up to this appointment and the Minister has asked the Secretary General (Robert Watt) of the department of Health for that report. Mr Martin said: “In my view, it should be paused, there should be a reassessment.”