Donnelly's refusal to appear before committee over Holohan role slammed 

Stephen Donnelly: Has declined invite to appear before Finance Committee over matters relating to secondment of Dr Tony Holohan to TCD.

Opposition TDs have criticised the health minister for declining to appear before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to discuss the now abandoned secondment of Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College Dublin.

Stephen Donnelly and Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt, who headed  the now abandoned move, have declined the invite to appear before the committee on Wednesday to face questions on how the secondment came about.

A letter sent to the committee from Mr Donnelly's private secretary said: "Neither the minister nor his officials are in a position to attend the meeting."

A spokesman for Mr Donnelly told the Irish Examiner: “The minister will engage with the Oireachtas following the outcome of the review, as he does with the Health Committee all the time.” 

Committee member Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said it is "absolutely scandalous that the highest paid civil servant in the country has refused two requests in this Dáil term to come before the committee and be accountable for his actions".

"It is also incredible that Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, who admits that he was blindsided by the actions of his secretary general, is providing no oversight or control over the actions of this civil servant. It shows deep weakness at the heart of this government."

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said: "It is completely unacceptable that both the secretary general of the Department and the minister would not make themselves available to Oireachtas committees for scrutiny. This will only add further to the confusion and compound the absolute lack of transparency."

The Taoiseach said on Sunday that his understanding is that the minister for health has communicated with the chair of the committee John McGuinness and has not refused to go before any committee.

"He has said that an external review has been ordered [and] that the external review should conclude and then the minister is more than happy to go before committee," Micheál Martin said.

"Now there's a number of committees so that probably has to be resolved as well [to see] which is the most appropriate.

"The minister said to me, he has no difficulty going before the health committee, but the sensible thing would be that the external review would be allowed, conclude, which will be within a reasonably short timeframe. That then would give the basis for an informed presentation to the committee."

An independent expert is to head an external review of issues surrounding the abandoned secondment.

Maura Quinn, the outgoing chief executive of the Institute of Directors, is to lead the review which was initiated by Mr Donnelly. It is expected to be completed in June and the minister says he intends to publish its findings.